The Effect of the Interactive Language Journal on the Academic Spanish Writing of Dual
Language Middle School Science Students
Benjamin P. Floyd
A research project submitted to the faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Master of Education
The Evergreen State College
March 17, 2012
Running Head: THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
A pproval:
___________________________________________________
G race H uerta, Ph.D., member of the faculty
_____________________________________
Date
2
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Abstract
Changing demographics in schools show an influx of language learners at rapid pace in
many districts across the nation. Dual language programs teach content in both
languages with the goal of achieving biliteracy. This multiple case study researched the
effect of the interactive language journal on the academic Spanish writing of two native
Spanish speakers and a native English speaker in a middle school dual language program.
Participants wrote in weekly journal entries that combined the interactive science
notebooks with dialogue journals and reflective interactive journals. Qualitative analysis
of writing used the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages writing
SURILFLHQF\JXLGHOLQHVDQGVKRZHGDQLPSURYHPHQWLQHDFKSDUWLFLSDQW¶VZULWLQg of at
least one level between the first and last journal entry. Quantitative analysis included the
counting of words and sentences in a passage and determining the percentage of complete
sentences, noun/adjective agreement, verb conjugation, spelling, and Spanish words.
Results reported an increase in the quantity of writing with two participants doubling the
number of words, and improving the accuracy of grammar 20% in some categories. This
research supported the use of bilingual/dual language programs in showing that content
literacy can improve through use of the native language. Additional research needs to be
done with the interactive language journal in different school populations. An
implication of this study suggests the need to provide an additional class to teach Spanish
literacy during intervention classes so as not to compromise the quality and vigor of the
content classes.
Keywords: Interactive language journal, dual language, dialogue journal, science
notebook, interactive journal, language learner, academic writing
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N TS
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH QUESTION ......................... 8
The dilemma: Changing demographics and what to do about it .................................... 8
What exactly is an interactive notebook and what is an interactive journal? ................. 9
Introducing the interactive language journal ............................................................... 11
What does research show about the use of interactive notebooks?................................. 12
What does the literature say about interactive journals? ................................................ 14
What does this research contribute to dual language pedagogy? .................................... 17
CHAPTER 2: METHODS ............................................................................................. 20
Setting ........................................................................................................................ 20
Program model .......................................................................................................... 21
Participants ................................................................................................................. 22
Data collection ........................................................................................................... 23
The multiple case study model .............................................................................. 23
Qualitative and quantitative methods ..................................................................... 24
Student Artifacts ................................................................................................... 25
Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 26
Limitations ................................................................................................................ 27
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS .............................................................................................. 29
Survey questions ........................................................................................................ 29
Dialogue journals ....................................................................................................... 31
Field observations....................................................................................................... 32
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Josefina. ................................................................................................................... 35
Survey and background ......................................................................................... 35
Field observations ................................................................................................. 36
Journal entries....................................................................................................... 37
3HGUR« ................................................................................................................... 41
Survey and background ......................................................................................... 41
Journal entries ....................................................................................................... 42
Beverly. .................................................................................................................... 45
Survey and background ......................................................................................... 45
Journal entries ...................................................................................................... 46
Overall effect of the interactive language journal ...................................................... 51
CHAPTER 4: CONNECTIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS......................................... 54
Connection between research and literature .............................................................. 54
Science notebooks .............................................................................................. 54
Interactive journals ............................................................................................ 56
Dialogue journals .............................................................................................. 59
Implications for my teaching ................................................................................... 61
Implications for future research ............................................................................... 64
Final thoughts ......................................................................................................... 66
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 67
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................... 71
Appendix A: Letter of consent in English ................................................................... 71
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Appendix B: Letter of consent in Spanish .................................................................. 72
Appendix C: Consent form in English ........................................................................ 73
Appendix D: Consent form in Spanish ....................................................................... 74
Appendix E: Survey questions ................................................................................... 75
Appendix F: Quantitative data analysis ...................................................................... 76 Appendix G: Qualitative analysis- ACTFL intermediate writing guidelines ................ 77 Appendix H: Qualitative analysis- ACTFL advaQFHGZULWLQJJXLGHOLQHV«««««
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A cknowledgements
I want to thank the Inlet School District for the opportunity to be involved in the
dual language program at Landmark Middle School. I value the experience gained in
each school that I have worked and recognize that each student has motivated me to
improve myself, especially the trying ones. I extend my heartfelt thanks (and apologies)
to my wife Christie and our four children, Makayla, Lilly, Alex, and Amelia. Some of
my best writing came while they were watching the Wiggles, Thomas the Tank Engine,
or Bill Nye, to whom I offer my thanks in their tantalizing and captivating influence over
my children. Most of the 77 pages were computed on an old and barely operational
computer. I appreciate that it did not crash or lose my work. The computer now lives a
UHWLUHGOLIHLQP\GDXJKWHU¶VEHGURRP0\JUDWLWXGHJRHVRXWWRWKRVHRIP\PDVWHUV
cohort: To Grace Huerta for revealing to me that I am an awesome teacher and to
continue to be resilient, to Mohamed Ali for helping me feel that my talents have aided
him, to María Rodríguez whose opinion of my Spanish means a lot to me, and to Kristen
Blegen for appreciating my stick figure, themed drawings on visual presentations.
Thanks to my faithful friend, Jesus Christ, whose enabling power allows me to be more
than I would be, who values me because I am me, and because of His example to minister
to the individual at infinite cost. May we all be Master teachers after His example.
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C hapter 1: L iterature Review and Resea rch Q uestion
T he Dilemma: C hanging Demographics and W hat to Do A bout It
In many school districts across the nation the demographics are changing rapidly.
I recently taught in a school that only had a handful of Spanish-speakers a decade ago yet
today has 50% native Spanish speakers. This school is not alone. How will districts
service their changing student body? This afore-mentioned school took a strong Englishonly approach by discouraging the use of Spanish that devalued that language and
insisting using English, the only valued language in the school. Research shows that this
is a gross disservice to students (Crawford, J. & Krashen, S., 2007; Huerta, 2009).
Another school that I taught at experienced similar demographic changes in a short
amount of time. Their solution, as well as that of a few other districts was to embrace the
Spanish language and educate their students in bilingual and dual language programs.
Research shows that this strategy builds on the native language literacy and aids in
English development (Bigelow & Schwarz, 2010; Crawford, J. & Krashen, S., 2007;
Gass, S. & Slinker, L., 2001; Huerta, 2009). In fact, these programs give equal value to
both languages in the goal of biliteracy. Yet this progressive approach meets with some
initial reluctance from the general public. Voices could be heard to say or thoughts
UHPDLQXQVSRNHQWRH[SUHVV³,VQRWWKLV$PHULFD"6KRXOGQRWZHRQO\HGXFDWHLQ
(QJOLVK"´
There is a myth that says that if a child were to learn two languages in a bilingual
or dual language program, beginning to teach in the other language will result in
interference with learning English (Freeman & Freeman, 2006). How does a student
become language proficient? Research shows that this takes between 5-7 years in ideal
circumstances to develop the academic language needed for scholastic success (Suarez-
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
9
Orozco, et al., 2008). However, legislation often demands that ELL students demonstrate
English proficiency in a much shorter time that this (Wright, 2006). Teachers are then
pressured to force ELL students to produce academic language that can be measured and
assessed in a short amount of time. Language output is measured in oral and written
proficiency tests. Even reading proficiency tests depend on writing as a way to check for
understanding because the student is required to write or mark an answer. Classroom
writing is often done through use of notebooks or journals. One assumption persists that
writing instruction students receive does not necessarily improve their writing. This is
seen in students that graduate from high school and yet are not prepared for writing in
FROOHJH2¶&RQQHOO'\PHQW)RUPDOZULWLQJLVHVSHFLDOO\GLIILFXOWIRUODQJXDJH
learners because it demands use of the academic language that takes 5-7 years to develop
(Peregoy & Boyle, 2008). Interactive notebooks and journals can help in developing
writing proficiency (Full Option Science System, 2011; Peyton, 1987)
W hat exactly is an Interactive Notebook, and W hat is an Interactive Journal?
Interactive notebooks are defineGDV³DFROOHFWLRQRIQRWHVWDNHQIURPUHDGLQJ
listening, discussion, and viewing, including corresponding responses, either in graphic
RUZULWWHQIRUP&DUWHU+HUQDQGH]5LFKLVRQS´7KH\DUHDOVRGHILQHGDVD
³GDLO\MRXUQDO-type recording of student-written class notes from reading, lecture, and
discussions, and the reflective and metacognitive responses students make to their own
QRWHWDNLQJ&DUWHUHWDOS´7KHLQWHUDFWLYHQRWHERRNLVPRUHWKDQMXVWQRWHV
however. It takes on a daily learning cycle format of input, engagement, and output that
³UHTXLUH>V@VWXGHQWVWRDFWLYHO\HQJDJHZLWKWKHODQJXDJH:DOGPDQ&ULSSHQ
p.53)." Interactive notebooks scaffold academic vocabulary, as well as using writing,
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
10
sketching, and drawing as a way to demonstrate learning. Inserts of important handouts
are attached and used to study (Full Option Science System, 2011; Waldman & Crippen,
2009). In teaching language, parts of speech can be color-coded and a glossary is put in
the back. Interactive notebooks are usually found in K-12 science classrooms1.
In higher education, critical reflective journals, or interactive journals, have
gained use as a tool for students in learning (Dyment & O'Connell, 2010; Redmann,
2005). The reflective journals are sometimes the extensions of the lectures and rely on
the ability to reflect and connect content to prior knowledge and learned experiences, or
field journals. Brain research supports that journal writing aids in transfer due to the
reflection on what was newly learned (Sousa, 2006). This fits into the abstraction phase
of the four part learning cycle of input, prediction, abstraction, and testing (Zull, 2005).
Other ways they are used are for recording travel logs, reading responses, and personal
growth (O'Connell & Dyment, 2006). The interactive reading journal was developed for
college foreign language students of all levels to help them access literature and prepare
for classroom discussions (Redmann, 2005). This journal provided the tool for prereading and post-reading strategies to aid in the understanding of target language
literature and encourage students to prepare for class discussions (Redmann, 2005).
Further uses include the practice of dialogue journaling. Dialogue journals have
been in use since 1980 and have found to be successful in improving the writing of
elementary language learners, mainstream K-12 students, and even adult ELLs (Peyton,
1987; Peyton, 2000). The dialogue journal is "written conversation" between the teacher
and the student (Peyton, 1987, p.6). Students write about topics of their own choosing
1
See Full Option Science System, 2011; Miller & Calfee, 2004; Waldman, C., & Crippen, K. 2009;
Worth, Moriarty, & Winokur, 2004
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11
and teachers take on the role of participant in the conversation rather than evaluator
(PeytoQ7KHGLDORJXHMRXUQDOVXSSRUWVODQJXDJHDFTXLVLWLRQWKHRU\¶VGLVFXVVLRQ
of language routes in that it supports developmentally appropriate levels of language
usage, it can be used to model correct language structures, and can help ELLs focus on
meaning rather than form (Mitchell & Miles, 2004; Peyton, 1987).
Introducing the Interactive L anguage Journal
I propose to use an interactive notebook/interactive journal hybrid to make a
notebook that uses best practices of each of the above mentioned tools for the dual
language middle school population. This interactive language journal will be composed
of vocabulary/learning target sheets and sketching/note taking sheets as the science
notebook. It will incorporate a weekly dialogue journal component that provides the low
stakes, student-generated and teacher-modeled written conversation entry. Furthermore,
this hybrid will incorporate the natural language approach of Stephen Krashen as used by
the Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) method of foreign
language instruction2, by pre-teaching vocabulary, teaching grammar implicitly, and
providing reading and writing exercises based on the vocabulary (Gaab, 2006). This
hybrid notebook/journal that my students used included the use of what is called a
cognitive or picture dictionary. This is one of many Guided Language Acquisition
Device (GLAD) strategies that I implemented (Brechtel, 2001). The form that this was
expressed in the interactive language journal was that of a loose-lHDI³7DUJHW´SDJH
2
TPRS follows the premise of teaching language in context and in a comprehensible input environment.
New vocabulary is introduced as gestures or actions and visuals. The words are used in a personalized
question and answer session to make the words meaningful to the student. Vocabulary is creatively put
into class-generated oral stories and later read in the written stories. Focus is on meaning and
understanding rather than on form.
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wherein students predicted the meaning of new words, drew a picture, used vocabulary in
a sentence, and wrote an analogy.
One reason why I refer to interactive science notebooks is because of my prior
experience with them as a science educator and student. As an undergraduate student with
a science major, I used field notebooks to record observations and collections. As a
science teacher, I required students to use science notebooks to record their experiments.
Exposure to the interactive notebook model of input and output in a daily learning cycle
has also occurred while I have been a teacher.
W hat Does the Research Show A bout the Use of Interactive Notebooks?
The literature suggests that interactive notebooks support content specific
knowledge through writing because students develop reflective abilities that help them
clarify what they know and do not know because of the direct relationship between
forming concepts and expressing them in words (Full Option Science System, 2011).
The literature also claims that interactive notebooks promote writing through such
content areas as science because science is problem-based and engaging and naturally
leads to communicating about inquiry (Worth, Moriarty, & Winokur, 2004). This is not a
stretch to think of science class as a place to develop as a writer. The Educational
Development Center points out that science and English/language arts standards are
connected and further explains that scientific inquiry engages students in a problem that
requires language skills to communicate about it (Worth, Moriarty, & Winokur, 2004).
Even introductory brain research informs us that the brain is engaged by puzzles,
mysteries, and problems (Zull, 2005). Furthermore, interactive journaling is unique
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13
because it enables students and teachers to mix content and writing, and makes thinking
visible (Miller & Calfee, 2004).
Beckstead (2008) found science notebooks to be a useful form of assessment. She
used writing forms such as essays, poetry, and letters to be a concluding activity at the
end of a science unit. Her students would write about their discoveries and publish them
LQWKHFODVV¶V%HFNVWHDG+HLJKW¶V6FLHQFH-RXUQDO just as read scientists would do.
Beckstead used student science notebooks for the more common use of recording
information, and used the class science journal as a way to integrate language arts and
science throughout the school year. She found value in looking at student writing
EHFDXVHLQLQIRUPHGKHURIKHUVWXGHQWV¶XQGHrstanding of the science concepts. Results
of this practice included improved test scores, writing ability, science comprehension,
and student excitement (Beckstead, 2008).
Shepardson and Britsch (2004), describe how educators can best review a
VWXGHQW¶Vscience journal. This effective review of notebooks includes an analysis of
student understanding and misconceptions in the writing. An important consideration
explained by these authors is the amount of structure required in the pages of the science
notebook. They discuss that too much structure stifles the ways students can express
themselves. They suggest giving the student a space in the notebook, but not limitations
of how to use that space in relating personal experiences with a concept. For example, if
students are required to use the lines of the page, it might prevent the use of sketching or
drawing as a way of drawing on personal experience (Shephardson &Britsch, 2004).
Braxton (1998), in her action research regarding the use of interactive science
notebooks, found that her students' writing improved. Braxton had heard about INs from
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14
a colleague and decided to try them in her 4th grade science class. She described the
initial effort in implementing the notebooks as a struggle, but that students showed
evidence of learning science. Students were able to explain scientific concepts using
vocabulary better over time and were able to show understanding of science concepts
through writing. Students were able to report this in the focus group interviews they did
as part of Braxton's (1998) action research.
Wilkins (2010) also conducted action research of interactive science notebooks.
This study focused on middle school students who had scored poorly in state and district
science assessments. Many of these students were from disadvantaged groups also
(Wilkins, 2010). Wilkins found that students could use the interactive notebook as a
place to write, draw, and explain the science they were learning. The students were
effectively creating their own personal textbook (Wilkins, 2010). With the use of the
interactive notebook, these students significantly improved their 8th grade standardized
test scores (Wilkins, 2010).
W hat Does the L iterature Say A bout Interactive Journals?
2¶&RQQHOOand Dyment (2006) studied the interactive journal use in college
through the lens of the student and the faculty. They found that professors wanted IJs to
be a reflective part of their pedagogy. Findings also showed that only about half of the
student entries were reflective rather than descriptive. They found that instructors
assumed that students already had the reflection skills when in reality they need to be
explicitly taught and modeled. They provide an informative plan of answers and
responses to student questions to aid in student buy-in and teaching of skills so students
will write reflectively instead of descriptively. Students with the proper scaffolding can
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15
be found to write journals that are deeply reflective, highly critical, and insightful
(Dyment & O'Connell, 2010).
Redmann (2005) investigates the use of an interactive reading journal to teach
college foreign language students how to get the most from target language literature.
She observes that most foreign language programs in higher education focus on skills or
grammar in the lower level classes and literature in the higher level classes. Students
were found to struggle with literature even though they had the grammar skills. The
study describes the use of an interactive reading journal and how this is a tool for pre-,
during, and post-reading strategies. Students reported that they were more prepared for
class because the interactive reading journal gave them a starting point for class
discussions (Redman, 2005). Some students even called the interactive reading journal
the most positive part of their foreign language experience (Redmann, 2005). Redmann
found that the students could see their growing language proficiency and that the
interactive reading journal assisted in improving reading and writing (Redmann, 2005).
Nassaji and Cumming (2000) analyzed the dialogue journal of a Farsi-speaking
immigrant student and her teacher over two school years at an elementary school in
Toronto, Canada. They found that the dialogue journal allowed a personalized zone of
proximal development to form as the teacher responded to the natural language
production of the 6-year-old. The teacher modeled at a slightly higher level of language
and used a lot of questioning in the early entries. The student responded by writing more
complexly and incorporating the writing techniques patterned by the teacher. Late entries
show the student posing many questions and the teacher responding minimally. The
VWXGHQWDQGWHDFKHUPDLQWDLQHGWKLVNLQGRI³FRPSOHPHQWDU\DV\PPHWULFVFDIIROGLQJ
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16
1DVVDML&XPPLQJS´WKURXJKRXWWKHGLDORJXHMRXUQDOH[SHULHQFH7KH
early writings showed a request-response pattern, while later writings developed into
questions into deeper meanings.
González-Bueno and Pérez (2000) studied the effect of electronic mail on Spanish
writing grammatically and on quantity. The e-mail group of students produced more
writing than the pen and pencil group. The accuracy of grammar was seen to be similar
in both groups. This study suggests the effective use of interactive journaling digitally, as
well as with the hardbound notebook.
Hammadou (1991) explored the interrelationships of prior knowledge, inference,
and language proficiency in college foreign language classrooms. The study frustratingly
found that prior knowledge is hard to test, although we all know it is good practice to
access prior knowledge in learners. Readers were found to give weaker retells of
readings they believed they had the most prior knowledge about. I think that this could
be due to the lessened attention to a topic that seems familiar. Lower level readers were
found to infer more in their reading. Perhaps this is to help the reader make sense of a
selection that a person is not familiar with, where a stronger reader does not need to
invent as much of the meaning up of what they read. This study causes me to use the
power of prior knowledge and inference to aid student writing development just as a Jedi
would use the Force.
Pessoa, Hendry, Donato, Tucker, and Lee (2007) studied two teachers in a 6th
grade Spanish content-based curriculum program. They found that the teacher talk in this
curriculum had a strong effect on the students learning content and language. The
teacher whose students did not learn as efficiently focused on explicit grammar
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17
instruction and non-WRSLFDOO\UHODWHGH[FKDQJHVZKHUHDVWKH³PRUHHIIHFWLYH´WHDFKer
corrected grammar implicitly, balanced content and language focus, provided
opportunities for students to co-construct form, and revealed interpersonal,
conversational features. Teacher talk can be effectively done through a dialogue journal
approach.
Brown, Solovieva, and Eggett (2011) used argumentation and debate to improve
fluent Russian speakers writing ability. They knew that their student population had a
strong conversational background of the language, but lacked formal writing instruction.
Writing proficiency was measured through use of a nationally recognized written
proficiency test as the pre-test and post-test. Furthermore, students produced 8 essays
that were analyzed for complexity by identifying the ratio of total error-free attempts
versus total words and the total attempts at complexity measures to total number of
words. The oral debates and television programs were a scaffolded tool to promote
writing of the same topics. Brown, Solovieva, and Eggett (2011) found that their
students writing improved grammatically, but was more restricted in the risks taken.
7KH\FDPHWRWKHFRQFOXVLRQWKDWWKHVWXGHQWVZHUH³XQOHDUQLQJ´WKHLUPLVWDNHVLQ
transferring oral language to written language. I am interested in this research as a way
to use methods in measuring writing proficiency.
W hat does this resea rch contribute to dual language pedagogy?
Thus we see the literature on using interactive notebooks in content-driven
classrooms for children and adolescents, using notebooks for school-aged ELL students,
and reflective interactive journals for college students. There is a dearth of research on
how notebooks or journals aid in writing proficiency for middle school bilingual science
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18
students. How can notebooks or journals do this? What is the most effective way to use
writing for adolescent science students in a dual language classroom? I want to explore
the use of interactive notebooks and journals in developing academic writing among this
middle school population. I want to incorporate strategies of the interactive notebook
used in K-12 science classrooms with the reflective nature of the interactive journal of
higher education. This led me to the formation of the interactive language journal.
My essential question becomes: How does the use of the interactive language
journal affect academic Spanish writing proficiency among middle school students in a
dual language science class? The range of language proficiency varies from the native
(QJOLVKVSHDNHUHQUROOHGLQWKHGLVWULFW¶VEilingual elementary school who only uses
Spanish in the one dual language class in middle school to the native Spanish speaker
who uses it every day to communicate with family and friends. The challenge is to
scaffold and build confidence in writing among students that potentially have had little
formal training in their native language. Dialogue journals offer a low stakes,
developmentally appropriate forum for language development and the total attention of a
more capable peer.
Basically, I want to use the research supported strategies of interactive notebooks
and interactive journals with middle school dual language learners and see what happens.
I suspect that academic writing will improve slowly, but steadily and that the interactive
language journal kept as a comprehensive student portfolio will display the growth. I
want students to experience the shock factor of seeing writing done in the first week
versus the writing done in the last week of a quarter the same way a person who sees how
much a child has grown that he has not seen in a while or noticing the drastic change of a
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
haircut. I want their notebook to be proof of their significant and meaningful academic
growth with the English language.
19
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20
C hapter 2: M ethods
Setting
The visitor to the site of research would travel a scenic forest-covered hills drive
to arrive at the school. The building commands the respect of the community as one of
the newer campuses in the rural district, having been built in the last decade. The
grounds are tailored and the sidewalks clean of litter. The walls of the school are free of
the wear and tear that is seen in many schools. This was the 6 th and 7th grade public
middle school that offered dual language Spanish courses in science and social studies. It
was the only program like this offered within 100 miles of the school. The student
population was under 600, with a free and reduced lunch enrolment of nearly 60%.
School demographics were predominantly white (60%) and Latino (23%). Special
Education students accounted for about 17 % of the student body. School state test
scores showed gradual improvement over the last 8 years with about 60% of students
having met standards in reading, 50% in math, and 65% in writing. The school had been
labeled as an at risk school due to test scores within the last decade as well.
The Spanish science class was made up of about 75% first language Spanish
students and 25% first language English students of the 32 enrolled. This group of
students was part of a cohort that began at the bilingual elementary school in the district.
Their K-5 schooling was half English and half Spanish. In 6 th grade, selected students
continued the dual language option by taking science and social studies in Spanish.
Math, literacy, and electives were all in English. The same pattern continued in 7 th grade.
The present cohort was in their last year as dual language students. The class period was
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21
70 minutes long and lasted a semester. It was the only class taken in Spanish until the
students switched to social studies at the semester.
Program Model
The Inlet School District had adopted a 50/50 bilingual model at one of their
elementary schools, Conifer Elementary. This decision came about first as an effort to
transfer all English language learners in a bilingual pre-school offered at that site. This
was meant to serve native Spanish speaking families but was open to others. The
following year the district decided to bus all non-proficient English students to Conifer
Elementary where it taught K-2 in Spanish and operated as a late exit transitional
program to an all English grades 3-5. Each following year another grade was added to
offer Spanish. Around nine years after the first bilingual pre-school classes, Conifer
Elementary had transformed into a 50/50 dual language school for every grade level preK-5.
The early design was described by the district trainer DV³PHVV\EXWWKHLQWHQWLRQV
were right on SHUVRQDOFRPPXQLFDWLRQ1RYHPEHU´ There were three classes
for each grade level, one in English, Spanish, and either. This model did not seem to
work as well as it was determined through study of the extant research that bilingual
students associate a teacher or class as language specific. Currently there was still a three
class per grade level with one being English, Spanish, and self-contained. Within the last
five years, Spanish classes were first offered at Landmark Middle School. By this time,
Conifer Elementary had formally structured a 50/50 bilingual school through all the
grades and now proudly offered a continuation of dual language at the middle school.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
22
&RQLIHU(OHPHQWDU\¶VGXDOODQJXDJHSURJUDPRSHUDWHGXQGHUDGRFXPHQWWLWOHG
³,QWHJUDWHG6KHOWHUHG,QVWUXFWLRQDO0RGHO´7KLVPRGHOIRFXVHVhigh amounts of
comprehensible input for all four language domains of listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. It front loads key vocabulary through pre-teaching, accessing prior knowledge,
and building background knowledge. Many strategies come from sheltered instruction
including Guided Language Acquisition Devices (GLAD). The GLAD strategies came
about through the efforts of a couple of Californian teachers in a language diverse
classroom. Their combined research into language acquisition and trial and error resulted
in the creation of the GLAD strategies. This is the program model from which my
students in the bilingual science class came.
Pa rticipants
The participants were selected from the dual language science class I taught.
There was a range of language proficiency among the group in Spanish and English.
Language proficiency is defined as the ability to communicate with the target language
through reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Three students were ultimately
selected from this class to be the participants in this action research. I selected 10
students who had shown strong production through journaling to whom to send consent
forms. Seven of them returned the forms and I used journaling, survey questions, and
classroom observations to select three. I determined to select two first language Spanish
students, a boy and a girl, and a first language English student. Josefina was the female
first language student and Pablo the boy. Beverly was the first language English student.
This was important to have a representative of each gender and also of each native
language. This diversity of participants allows for stronger triangulation of the effect of
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
23
the interactive language journal. The names I used here are pseudonyms and other
identifying information was avoided.
Data Collection
T he multiple case study model. I wanted to see how using an interactive
language journal affected use of academic Spanish in writing. The interactive language
journal was an organized, scaffolded, and developmentally appropriate tool to foster
gains in language proficiency. Analysis of writing samples and determination of writing
attitudes and behaviors through survey questions and field observations were employed
as the data collection devices to answer the research question. It seemed to me that the
most appropriate research model to collect the data to inform my research question was a
PXOWLSOHFDVHVWXG\GXHWRWKHDELOLW\WRGHHSO\DQDO\]HGDWDLQWKHFRQWH[WRIWKHSHUVRQ¶V
academic language experiences. This would put value on the change in writing that was
recorded in early entries compared to the later entries with the use of vocabulary building
strategies.
A multiple case study allowed me to select a strategic sample of students to study
to find effects in academic writing. The multiple case study gave credibility,
transferability, dependability, and confirmability to the research. Credibility was
established by using data from a prolonged period of 8 weeks for observations, writing,
and interviews (Mertens, 2010). Also, triangulation from these data sources spoke to the
credibility of the conclusions (Mertens, 2010). The necessity of using a multiple case
study over a single case study was due to the transferability of my conclusions as well.
7KHFDVHVWXG\IRUPDWJDYHWKHFRQWH[WLQD³WKLFNGHVFULSWLRQ´W\SHRIZD\0RUHWKDQ
one case study also strengthened the validity of the results (Mertens, 2010). The multiple
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
24
case study model made my research dependable through documentation of the changes
unique in each case and by maintaining a case study protocol in each case of the multiple
case study (Mertens, 2010). The ability to track my claims to the specific quotes,
observed actions, and writing sample analyses made my research confirmable by
SURYLGLQJD³FKDLQRIHYLGHQFH´0HUWHQV
Q ualitative and quantitative methods. I chose to collect my data through the
methods of observation, writing samples, and survey questions. I benefited from being
the classroom teacher in this bilingual middle school science context, and therefore took
on a participant-observer (Mertens,
2010) role. I hoped to see, hear, and
LQIHUWKHSDUWLFLSDQWV¶DWWLWXGHV
engagement, and interactions with peers
through classroom observation. The
interactive language notebook lent itself
to cooperative speaking, reading, and
writing. This was one of the
components that I wanted to measure
qualitatively. In order to collect data on
this in its natural setting, in needed to be
observed. Language theory supports the
social nature of interaction (Mitchell &
Myles, 2004).
Photograph 2. 1 Sample Dialogue Journal Page
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
25
Student artifacts. I planned to analyze at least five journal samples for each
participant. See the sample to the left in Photo
2.1:ULWLQJVDPSOHVDOVRLQFOXGHGWKH³%UDLQ
RQ3DSHU6FLHQFH1RWHERRN´7KHUHIRUH
some samples were reflective writing, while
others were vocabulary-based such as the
target sheets. An example of the target sheet
is to the right in Photo 2.2. This was a page
where the vocabulary word of focus would be
written as the signal word. Students then
wrote a prediction to show me prior
knowledge, used the word in a sentence they
Photograph 2. 2 Sample Target or Vocabulary
Page
generated and recorded the target for the day. The next day was to copy the definition,
draw a picture, and complete an analogy. At the end of the class students answered the
daily target on a sticky note and place it on a bulletin board. I corrected it and the next
GD\VWXGHQWV³FRUUHFWHG´WKHLUWDUJHWDVQHHGHG$QRWKHUNLQGRISDJHLQWKH³%UDLQRQ
Paper´ Science Notebook was the notes page. This page had the top half reserved for
sketching or drawing and the bottom half for written descriptions. An example of this
kind of page is found on the next page in Photograph 2.4. Writing samples allowed me to
measure writing quantitatively and qualitatively. I analyzed writing through counting
words, checking several grammar points as a percentage correct in a passage, and writing
proficiency based on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
26
(ACTFL) proficiency guidelines (Swender,
Conrad, &Vicars, 2012). Comparison was
made of writing over time. Photographs of
writing samples enhance the analysis as well
VLQFHWKH\VKRZWKHZRUNLQWKHVWXGHQW¶V
own handwriting and style.
Through the survey questions, data
was collected about attitudes about writing
for the participants. The survey questions
are included in appendix E. I hoped to
H[SORUHWKHSDUWLFLSDQW¶VSULRUH[SHULHQFH
Photograph 2. 3 Sample Science Notebook Sketch Page
with writing and how this conception changed throughout of the study. I hoped to
perceive the implicit knowledge of writing through probing early memories of writing.
This should have given voice to the participant and her lived experiences with writing. If
there were any change to these attitudes and writing, I wanted to see how the interactive
language journal affected it.
A nalysis
I planned to use narrative description in my analysis. The use of thick description
of my pedagogy and classroom environment aided in a holistic view of the data. I looked
for patterns in the field notes to see changes over the 8 weeks. I used clustering to
narrow the codes from observations to a few themes. I also used the observations to see
how the interactive language journal affected behaviors, attitudes, and interaction by
observing change. I anticipated that this change would present itself in the quantity of
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
27
words written and quality of grammatical writing over time. This change might have
been illustrated in a visible change of behavior toward writing during our eight week
VWXG\2WKHUJUDGHOHYHOVFLHQFHFODVVHVXVHGWKH³%UDLQRQ3DSHU6FLHQFH1RWHERRN´
but I wanted to compare those classes to the bilingual class that also used the dialogue
journal component. Would the journaling inform my instruction? Would the journaling
give writer opportunity to use academic Spanish in a way that could not be seen in the
science notebook?
I showed the analysis of writing samples through tables and charts. Themes were
displayed in a chart. The writing samples allowed me to measure growth in quantity and
quality. I wanted to see if the interactive language journals aided in quantity writing,
TXDOLW\ZULWLQJERWKRUQHLWKHU7KHVXUYH\TXHVWLRQVRSHQHGXSWKHSDUWLFLSDQWV¶OLYHG
experiences and attitudes about writing. There is interest in how the interactive language
journal affected these. Survey responses were coded to find the big ideas that emerged
from the data set. Through clustering, I coded and identified the top 5-7 themes that
answered the research question. My goal was to identify specific themes that related to
the research question and literature.
L imitations
My research bias was that I hold to the natural language philosophy of teaching
language in context, teaching grammar implicitly, and looking for a predictable step-bystep growth in language proficiency. I also identified myself as a social constructivist, so
that all students had pre-existing schema, constructed their own meaning, and meaningful
learning occured in social interactions of partners, groups, and classes. I admit that I
wanted the interactive language journal to be successful, and acting as an informed
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
28
educator, I believed that it was a best practice of scaffolding writing. As part of my lived
experiences, I had formally studied German, Spanish, and American Sign Language. I
lived in a Spanish-speaking country for 2 years, effectively being a language learner in
WKDWVLWXDWLRQVLPLODUWRVRPHRIP\VWXGHQW¶VODQJXDJHMRXUQH\V)XUWKHUPRUHWKLVZDV
part of my first experiencing teaching in a bilingual classroom.
Due to the qualitative nature of this action research, any growth in the
development of English language acquisition could not have been directly attributed to
only the interactive language journal, although the research question may have given that
impression. The writing prompts used in the writing samples may not have been equal in
their ability to prompt writing for the participants. The relative short amount of time of
eight weeks was a limitation in this study. A quarter long or yearlong analysis would
have given more opportunity to see change over time. Also, by limiting the research to a
handful of participants, I potentially missed out on data from the rest of the students.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
29
C hapter 3: F indings
,QWKLVFKDSWHU,ZLOOSUHVHQWWKH³ELJSLFWXUH´RIP\ILQGLQJVE\DQDO\]LQJWKH
survey questions, dialogue journals, and field observations. The participants in this study
were students in a seventh grade dual language science class. Following this analysis,
HDFKSDUWLFLSDQW¶VGDWDZLOOEHDQDO\]HGLQWKHFRQWH[WRIWKHFODVV
Surveys Q uestions
Each student in the class completed a 10-question survey about writing. The
survey is included in Appendix E. Observations from these surveys revealed that the
students have been writing in Spanish since they were 5-7 years old. Now as 12-13-yearolds, they have been writing in Spanish for as long as they have been writing in English.
Earliest memories seemed to include writing from second grade or younger. Some
students wrote that they remembered writing their names. Others reported on a book they
wrote in a previous grade in which they were proud. One student reported on a book that
was written the previous year. Some participants wrote about everyday life. This took
the form of shopping lists, writing letters, taking notes in class, or writing in a journal.
Students also remarked on areas they wished to improve in their writing with the most
common responses related to spelling, grammar, or handwriting. A few students wrote
that they wished to improve their vocabularies. Still, some students wrote one or two
word answers to the surYH\TXHVWLRQVVXFKDV³HYHU\WKLQJ´³QRWKLQJ´³,'.´
There were four survey questions put on the end of one of the unit tests. The first
pair probed into the presence of literature, books, magazines, or newspapers at home in
English or Spanish. The other pair of questions sought out which language(s) was used at
home. Interestingly, students that reported using both English and Spanish at home
usually wrote that Spanish was used with the parents and English with siblings. This is
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
30
an example often seen in immigrant families where the children learn the dominant
language of the new community with much greater proficiency than the parents. The
normal tension between parents and children is amplified through the language tension of
children choosing to use the dominant language which distances them from their parents
and moves them nearer to the mainstream culture (Suarez-Orozco, et al. 2008).
Another observation that I made with the literature questions was that students
who seemed to have grade-level literacy tended to inform that there were many kinds of
literature in the home in one or more languages. On the contrary, students with below
grade-level literacy simply answered that there was little or no literature in the home in
either language. This dearth of printed language forms in the home reportedly
contributes at least partially to the vocabulary deficiency of children from lower socioeconomic statuses compared to children of higher SES (Hart & Risley, 1995).
This survey data collected at the end of the test seemed to give support to the
QHFHVVDU\OHDUQLQJHQYLURQPHQWGHWDLOHGE\.UDVKHQ¶V,QSXWK\SRWKHVLVDQG$IIHFWLYH
Filter hypothesis. These ideas establish the basic premise that the only requirement
needed for language learning is comprehensible input that is meaningful to the learner
(Mitchell & Miles, 2004). From a teacher perspective, some of the low literacy students
did not seem to value the texts available for class. This could mean that the class
literature was not comprehensible, not meaningful, or neither to those students.
6RPHWLPHVDVWXGHQWZRXOGEHKHDUGWRFRPPHQWGXULQJUHDGLQJDFWLYLWLHV³,GRQ¶WGR
FKDSWHUERRNV´RU³7KLVERRNLVVWXSLG´DQGDOVR³,GRQ¶WXQGHUVWDQGDQ\WKLQJLQWKLV
ERRN´
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
31
Dialogue Journals
Each week, the students wrote in their science journals for 10 minutes. I read the
journal entries and provided feedback to the students. This dialogue journal allowed the
participants to use academic Spanish authentically and also enabled me to respond to
them in developmentally appropriate ways. In addition, use of the journals provided a
glimpse into the persona of the students and offered a context to better understand the
background knowledge of the participant. The dialogue journals were written on loose
leaf notebook paper which were collected at the end of the 10 minutes and returned to the
students in preparation for their the next dialogue journal entry. Some students in the
class wrote for only a few of the minutes and looked around the class as if they were
searching for something else to write. Others would have continued writing if there had
been no time limit. The time limit was an effort to establish a control to use as a
measurement of growth.
The first prompt for the dialogue journal was ³+RZGR\RXXVHHQHUJ\HYHU\
GD\"´7KLVZDVGXULQJWKHHQHUJ\XQLW,WZDVLQWHUHVWLQJWRVHHWKDWVRPHVWXGHQWVLQ
this bilingual class wrote out a bulleted list. Others wrote full paragraphs. Two of the
participants for this particular study wrote in paragraphs. Their comfort level in writing
in Spanish was high. Participants wrote about electricity in their homes and water in their
bathrooms examples of energy usages throughout the day. Many also wrote about
physical activity and how that is a use of energy.
7KHVHFRQGSURPSWIRUWKHGLDORJXHMRXUQDOZDV³:KDWKDVEHHQ\RXUIDYRULWH
OHVVRQRIDQ\VFLHQFHFODVV"´3DUWLFLSDQWVZURWHDERXWWKHVKHHSH\HEDOOGLVVHFWLRQWKDW
was just completed a few days before. Others referred to the GAK Investigation that they
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
32
completed a couple weeks prior. This lesson involved the students mixing two liquid
solutions together to make a polymer that we called GAK. This substance sometimes
acted like a solid by keeping a shape and other times acted like a liquid, like dripping.
The majority of the details the participants provided were of lessons from this year.
However, some commented on a model made of a volcano or described a science fair
project completed in previous years.
7KHWKLUGSURPSWZDV³:KDWGRyou like about school? What do you not like
DERXWVFKRRO"´7KHUHVSRQVHVWRWKHVHMRXUQDOSURPSWVVKRZHGDSUHIHUHQFHIRUSK\VLFDO
education and lunchtime. Many participants wrote about how they valued the time and
opportunity to socialize with their friends. Another notable theme throughout many of
the entries was an importance on learning. The participants wrote about their favorite
classes and what made them wonderful. I noticed patterns of preferences for classes such
as art, physical education and science. The reasons students gave for these included the
opportunities to be active, use their own talents, or hands-on activities.
Students last wrote about which unicellular organism or one-celled life form that
we had studied they would like to be. They had 5 choices including two kinds of bacteria
and three kinds of protists. Many students chose an animal-like protist and explained that
they liked animals more than plants, fungi, or bacteria. A few students went into great
detail using some of the vocabulary we had studied, such as producer, consumer,
decomposer, nucleus, multicellular, and reproduction types.
F ield observations
The students were observed throughout an eight week period in their bilingual
science class. Some students showed great focus and concentration throughout their
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
33
observations, as shown by their posture in their chairs
and demeanor of their conduct. Some students were
more shy and reserved while others could not contain
spontaneous bursts of dialogue. Most were between
Photograph 3. 1 Research site
the two extremes, although it became apparent that
there was a wide spread of language proficiency among the class. A few students insisted
on using English and asked to see copies of the readings or tests in English. Others had
strong Spanish literacy.
The classroom was a science lab room with three sinks in the back of the room
and counters around the walls with cabinets for storage. Students sat at 2-person tables in
chairs on a tile floor with windows along one wall. The enrollment of the class was 32
students with about 75% of them being native Spanish speakers. The other fourth were
native English Speakers. A few of the native Spanish speakers were significantly
stronger in their English literacy than in Spanish. Evidences of this being a bilingual
class were that the whiteboard and projector showed a set of instructions, targets, and
information in English and in Spanish. The word wall on one of the walls showed
bilingual vocabulary with accompanying drawings. The teacher instructed in Spanish 90
percent or more of the time. Students were expected to respond, read, and write in
Spanish.
The average class period of 70 minutes went from Monday to Friday. Students
VSHQWWKHILUVWPLQXWHVRIFODVVFRPSOHWLQJDQGGLVFXVVLQJD³WDUJHWSDJH´Zhich
focused on a vocabulary word for 2 lessons. Photo 3.2 shows the target sheet for the
ZRUG³VLVWHPD´V\VWHPRI%HYHUO\RQHRIWKHFDVHVWXGLHVGLVFXVVHGEHORZ7KHILUVW
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
34
day of the word was to access prior knowledge. Visible on this sheet of paper is the new
vocabulary word in the top left of the page. Next Beverly wrote her prediction of what
she thought the word would have meant before she learned the definition in the top right
of the page. This student also used
the word in a sentence and copied the
daily learning target in the middle of
the page. The focus of the second
day of the new word was identifying
the correct conception of the word.
,QWKH³VLVWHPDV´WDUJHWSDJHPRGHO
she wrote the scientific definition and
drew a picture in the top half of the
page. Moreover, above the orange
sticky notes she completed an analogy and
Photograph 3. 2 Target or Vocabulary Page
below them she copied the daily target. The
GDLO\REMHFWLYHZDVUHFRUGHGDQGGLVFXVVHGZLWKDUHYLHZRIWKHSULRUOHVVRQ¶VREMHFWLYH
before moving on with the lesson. Each word had a signal phrase, which was a verbal
chant with gesturing (total physical response method). This device was employed as an
attention getter during transitions. The 50 minute chunk of time dedicated to the lesson
was usually broken up between two or three activities which usually included some type
of visual, video, hands-on activity, and writing. The last 5 minutes were spent on
FRPSOHWLQJDQ³H[LWWLFNHW´ZKLFKZDVDQVZHULQJWKHGDLO\REMHFWLYHDQGSRVWLQJLWRQD
bulletin board on one of the walls. In the photo 3.2, these exit tickets are the orange
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
35
sticky notes on the bottom half of the page. This ticket would be reviewed and modified
in the next class period by the student as needed. Let us look now at each participant.
Josefina
Survey and background. Josefina was a native Spanish speaking 7th grader at
Landmark Middle School in the dual language science class. Neither her mother nor her
father was educated past 6th grade due to the lack of opportunity for schooling in their
Mexican town and the need to work. I wondered what it must be like to have more
formal education than my parents by 7th grade. Josefina reported that she had literature,
books, magazines, or newspapers in both Spanish and English at home although she gave
no specific examples. Furthermore, she identified that both English and Spanish were
VSRNHQDWKRPH³PXFKR´DORW6KHKDGEHHQZULWLQJLQ6SDQLVKIRU\HDUVVLQFH
preschool. Her preferred language to write in was Spanish. While mentioning that she
FRXOGEHFUHDWLYHLIJLYHQDWRSLFVKHDOVRVWDWHGWKDW³FDVLQRPHJXVWDHVFUibir porque
KDEHFHVQRVHHVFULELUXQDVFRVDVVLF´,DOPRVWGRQ¶WOLNHWRZULWHEHFDXVHVRPHWLPHV
,GRQ¶WNQRZKRZWRZULWHVRPHWKLQJV,QDQVZHUWRWKHTXHVWLRQ³:KDWGR\RXQRW
OLNHDERXWZULWLQJ"´-RVHILQDVLPSO\ZURWH³WRGR´HYHU\WKLQJ$Sparently, she had
done some of the writing for the family due to her comment in the survey about using
ZULWLQJLQHYHU\GD\OLIH³VRORODXVRFXDQGRPLPDPiQHFHVLWDHVULELUXQDSDODEUD
FRUUHFWD´,RQO\XVH>ZULWLQJLQHYHU\GD\OLIH@ZKHQP\PRPQHHGVWo write a word
correctly). Her goal in writing was to write correctly and with neater handwriting.
Interestingly, she was the only student who wrote that she was not sure what her earliest
memory of writing was. Most students wrote about kindergarten or 1st grade writing
projects.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
36
F ield observations. In field observations, Josefina was attentive in class. She
usually was paying attention during instruction. She had been seen to be mindful in
completing her work. While sitting with a native English speaking classmate, she had
been seen helping and translating for her. This was important pedagogically because she
RIWHQUHSUHVHQWHGDPRUHFDSDEOHSHHULQWKHIUDPHZRUNRI9\JRWVN\¶V]RQHRISUR[LPDO
development and scaffolding which is a major tenet of Sociolinguistics that states that
language learning is a social endeavor (Mitchell & Myles, 2004). Her solid foundation in
Spanish allowed her to help others learn. She had a vast Spanish vocabulary of common,
every day jargon as well as academic Spanish. In language acquisition theory, it has been
shown that most language learners could develop the Basic Interpersonal Communication
Skills (BICS) within a six month to two year period (Gottlieb 2006; Peregoy & Boyle
2008). My observations were that she had moved beyond BICS and into Cognitive
Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). This mode of language is what is necessary
for success in school because it is the academic language. CALP often takes five to
seven years in ideal situations to develop (Gottlieb, 2006; Peregoy & Boyle, 2008). This
ZDVWKHVWDUWRI-RVHILQD¶VHLJKWKDFDGHPLF\HDU2QHWKLQJWKDWFRXOGKDSSHQLQDKRPH
OLNH-RVHILQD¶VZDVWKDWWKHFKLOGUHQZRXOGGHYHORSVWURQJFDVXDORURUDOXVHRIODQJXDJH
but be lacking in formal or written language.
In comparison to her classmates, Josefina showed a strong Spanish literacy. She
would develop her writing with a beginning, middle, and end as well as use complete
sentences often. She seemed to have developed strong writing skills and math skills. She
definitely lived up to the role of leader with regards to language proficiency in this class.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
37
Journal entries. -RVHILQD¶VMRXUQDOHQWULHVVKRZHGVWURQJDFDGHPLF6SDQLVKI
placed her in American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
proficiency level of Advanced rather than Superior because her writing was still concrete
rather than abstract. This was an age appropriate place to be in writing. She fit best at
Advanced rather than Intermediate because she had good control of grammar and would
be easily understood by native-UHDGHUVXQDFFRVWXPHGWRUHDGLQJDODQJXDJHOHDUQHU¶V
writing. She was writing in paragraph form as well. ,PDWFKHG-RVHILQD¶VILUVWMRXUQDO
entries to ACTFL proficiency level of Advanced Low. Parts of her grammar were strong
such as adjectives matching nouns and conjugating verbs correctly. Weaknesses in
grammar came mostly from lack of most accents and misspelling using letters with the
same phonetic sound. Overall,
-RVHILQD¶VXVHRIJUDPPDUILWEHVWZLWK
the Advanced Low description of
³PLQLPDOFRQWURORIFRPPRQVWUXFWXUHV´
while also being clear that she could
write in past and present tense, including
WKDWKHUZULWLQJZDVQRW³VXEVWDQWLYH´LQ
paragraph form (Swender, Conrad,
&Vicars, 2012, p. 12).
Figure 3.1
4XDQWLWDWLYH$QDO\VLVRI-RVHILQD¶V-RXUQDOV
Analysis Item
# of words
# of sentences
% words spelled right
% matching
nouns/adjectives
% Verbs conjugated
right
% complete sentences
% words in Spanish
1st
Journal
55
5
89
100
Last
Journal
113
7
94
100
100
100
80
100
100
98
-RVHILQD¶VILQDOHQWULHVZHUH$GYDQFHG0LGLQP\MXGJHPHQWTo see a
comparison of first to last entries, see figure 3.1 By her final entry, she had taken out the
LQFRUUHFW³+´LQZRUGVVXFKDV³DPLPHJXVWD´DQG³DYHFHV´,QWKHHDUOLHUHQWULHVVKH
KDGZULWWHQWKHVDPHZRUGV³KDPLPHJXVWD´DQG³KDEHFHV´7KLVVKRZHGD³JRRG
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
38
FRQWURORIDUDQJHRIJUDPPDWLFDOVWUXFWXUHV6ZHQGHUHWDOS´7KLVIRUPRI
phonetic spelling is common in homes where oral Spanish is used, but Spanish reading
and writing is less developed. It is also an example of fossilization, meaning that a
language learner becomes frozen in her language development and perpetuates errors that
she has been taught to correct (Mitchell & Myles, 2004).
In Spanish, every letter has only one sound. A couple letters will make the same
or nearly the same sound. When transferring oral language to written language, it is easy
to confuse b and v, h and a, ll and y, and finally c , s, or z. Being informed of her
SDUHQWV¶HGXFDWLRQDOOHYHOWKLVPDNHVVHQVH$WKRPHWKHIDPLO\LVIOXHQWLQRUDO
language. She must be familiar with these words in an oral setting. Yet when it is time
to write them, she might use the wrong letter for the sound of the word since she has not
read the word often and seen it spelled correctly. I inferred that her written Spanish is
VWURQJHUWKDQKHUPRWKHU¶VVLQFHVKHZURWHWKDWVKHZULWHVIRUKHUPRWKHUWREHVXUHLWLV
written correctly. Even with these conditions, in her last entry she wrote nearly 50 words
more than her first entry and four more sentences than her fewest in a journal entry. To
me this demonstrated an increase in writing proficiency.
Another description of Advanced Mid was that the writer could write extensively
about a topic, an occurance which I did not observe in the first entries (Swender et al.
2012). Her growth of only one level of proficiency fit with her having started in an
advanced level of writing and having more rigorous territory to cover in order to improve
to the next advanced level.
,QDQVZHULQJWKHSURPSWRI³+RZGR\RXXVHHQHUJ\HYHU\ GD\"´-RVHILQDZURWH
about the lights in the classrooms, keeping food either hot or cold, running in physical
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
39
education class, and moving our bodies. I wrote back to her asking if she had ever eaten
food that was not kept cold as it should. She answered no, so I responded that she must
not have gotten sick from eating spoiled food then. She also was comfortable with
relating her writing to her lived experiences. This is a strength of seeking out funds of
knowledge for use in instruction (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2006). Her motivation to
write will be higher when she can use relevant and meaningful parts of her lived
experiences. This was especially important to a writer like Josefina who admitted that
she did not like to write. Brain research informs us that relevance and meaningfulness
DUHNH\VWRJHWWLQJWKHEUDLQ¶VDWWHQWLRQ=XOO, 2005). Josefina enjoyed hands-on learning
DVHYLGHQFHGLQKHUMRXUQDOHQWU\RQ³ZKDWLVWKHWKLQJ\RXKDYHOLNHEHVWDERXWDQ\
VFLHQFHFODVV"´6KHHQMR\HGWKHFKHHWRURDVW7KLVZDVDGHPRQVWUDWLRQRIHQHUJ\LQ
food that was measured by burning a cheeto under a beaker of water and measuring the
change of the temperature of the water. The chemical energy in the cheeto was
transformed to heat energy and light energy as shown in the flame. She wrote of her
surprise of what happened to the cheeto when it caught on fire and feeling the heat of it.
The value of using several learning modalities in pedagogy is that it allows the language
OHDUQHUYDULRXV³URXWHV´WRDFTXLUHODQJXDJH,QWKLVWKHRU\WKHOHDUQHULVWKHRQHZKR
discovers what the grammar rules are before she follows them (Mitchell & Myles, 2004).
In asking about her favorite animal and plant, she responded that her favorite
DQLPDOZDV³HOSLQJLQR´SHQJXLQ7KLVMRXUQDOHQWU\LVIRXQGLQ3KRWR6KH
explained that she liked snow and penguins lived in the snow. She also wrote about a
SODQWFDOOHG³-LFDPD´IURP0H[LFRWKDWKHUXQFOHJUHZ-RVHILQDSURYLGHGULFKIXQGVRI
knowledge in her journals as previously and following details attest. By allowing and
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
40
DFWLYHO\VHDUFKLQJIRU-RVHILQD¶VIXQGVRINQRZOHGJHVKHZDVHPSRZHUHGWo offer her
valuable lived experiences as a resource for others in the class to learn (Gonzalez, Moll,
& Amanti, 2006).
This 7th grader decided
that she would have liked to be
a fungus-like protist if she had
to be a unicellular organism
because she liked mushrooms.
She recorded that she liked
mushrooms because they come
out in the Fall and Winter and
her favorite time of year is
Winter. This statement
allowed use of funds of
Photograph 3. 3 6DPSOHRI-RVHILQD¶V-ournaling
knowledge also. As an instructor
this told me of her prior knowledge of fungi which many of her classmates did not have.
Here, Josefina could be an expert and share her valuable lived experiences to inform the
class about the Fungi Kingdom (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2006). She also added a
connection from class into this mushroom discussion by musing if mushrooms were
plants or if they needed oxygen. We had studied the process of cellular respiration, by
which most organisms use glucose and oxygen to get energy to power their cells. This
also convinced me that her last entry was Advanced High due to showing an ability to
construct a hypothesis (Swender, et al. 2012).
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
41
Ped ro
Survey and background. Pedro was a native Spanish speaker in the bilingual
science class as well. He did not identify which language he was most comfortable
writing in, but wrote in Spanish for only three of the 10 survey questions. This led me to
believe that he felt that he was stronger in English than Spanish. However, he wrote all
of the answers to the four survey questions on the test in Spanish. Later he did write in
DQVZHUWRZKDWLVHDV\DERXWZULWLQJ³,FDQZULWHLQHQJOLVKRUVSDQLVKVLF´+H
identified conventions to be what is difficult about writing for him and had the goal of
³GR>LQJ@WKHFRQYHQWLRQVULJKWZLWKQRPLVWDNHV´3HGURUHPDUNHGWKDWKHOLNHGZKHQ
you know a thing by taking notes. What he did not like about writing was when he did
not know what to write and had to think about it. He reported that his earliest memory of
writing is when he wrote a sentence on the wall. I believe that this was probably a
Guided Language Acquisition Device (GLAD) strategy used in early grades with
VHQWHQFHVWULSVDQGEXWFKHUSDSHU0DQ\RIWKHWHDFKHUVLQ3HGUR¶VHOHPHQWDU\VFKRRO
were trained in GLAD strategies. GLAD strategies were developed by two teachers in
California who worked in an ultra-language diverse classroom whose intense and
comprehensive research coupled with their own trial and error led them to create the
framework of GLAD (Personal communication, 2011).
3HGURUHYHDOHGWKDWODQJXDJHDWKRPHZDVXVHGLQWKHIROORZLQJPDQQHU³KDEOR
[español] con padreV\KHUPDQRV+DEORLQJOHVFRQPLWLR´,VSHDN6SDQLVKZLWKP\
SDUHQWVDQGVLEOLQJV,VSHDN(QJOLVKZLWKP\XQFOH3HGUR¶VKRPHVHHPHGWREHD
OLWHUDWXUHULFKHQYLURQPHQWE\KDYLQJOLWHUDWXUHLQ6SDQLVKVXFKDV³ Hay un fantasma ´
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
42
( There is a Ghost) and literature in English like Alien 3, Gremlins, and the Harry Potter
series.
Journals. 3HGUR¶VZULWLQJEHVWILWLQWRWKHSURILFLHQF\OHYHORI$GYDQFHGGXHWR
grammar usage but by length fit best into Intermediate. He used past and present tense
well, which is indicative of Advanced proficiency in writing. However, his first entry
was not even written in paragraph form, but in bullets. Advanced level writing exhibits
³SDUDJUDSKOHQJWKDQGVWUXFWXUH6ZHQGHUHWDOS´+HGLGQRWSURGXFHDs
much as either of the other participants. Prioritizing the quality of his writing over his
quantity I placed him at Intermediate High for his early journal entries. He, like
Josefina, lacked most of the accents in his writing. Although I noted that the four times
KHXVHGWKHZRUG³HQHUJtD´HQHUJ\KHSXWDQDFFHQWRQLWWZLFH
His final journal entry had about double the amount of words and was written in
paragraph form as can be seen in Figure 3.2. This appeared as a strong indication that by
the end of the dialogue journals, he showed strong academic writing. It was interesting
that in the middle three entries he had written between 69-84 words which was almost
Figure 3.2
four times as many as his first entry. His
4XDQWLWDWLYH$QDO\VLVRI3HGUR¶V-RXUQDOV
last entry had the highest spelling of the
Analysis Item
# of words
# of sentences
% words spelled right
% matching
nouns/adjectives
% Verbs conjugated
right
% complete sentences
% words in Spanish
1st
Journal
23
0
87
100
Last
Journal
49
5
98
100
100
100
80
100
100
98
five, yet each word that needed an
accent did not have it. He would best be
placed at Advanced Low in his later
entries. His grammar of nouns
matching adjectives, conjugation of
verbs, and verb tense usage placed him
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
43
in advanced. His word production and sentences matched best with the low level. His
growth up one level of proficiency fit his situation of being a native Spanish speaker. He
had gained a strong casual vocabulary (BICS) and in this class was presumably focused
on learning the academic Spanish part of science (CALP) (Gottlieb, 2006).
3HGUR¶VILUVWMRXUQDOHQWU\VXUSULVHGPHLQWKHVHQVHWKDWKHZURWHLQEXOOHWV
instead of paragraph form. It had not occurred to me that a student would consider
writing a journal entry with bullets. Nonetheless, he presented high quality content in his
DQVZHUVWRWKHSURPSW³+RZGR\RXXVHHQHUJ\HYHU\GD\"´,UHVSRQGHGEDFNWRKLP
DERXWKLVFRPPHQWRI³GXUPLHQGRELHQ´VOHHSLQJZHOO+HDGGHGWKDWKe sleept seven
and a half hours a night because he woke up early. He also nicely phrased as only a
PLGGOHVFKRROHUFDQWKHHIIHFWRIIRRGRQHQHUJ\E\ZULWLQJ³D]XFDUWHKDFHORFR\WHGD
HQHUJLD>VLF@´VXJDUPDNHV\RXFUD]\DQGJLYHV\RXHQHUJ\,UHVponded to that phrase
by telling how I used to eat sugar by itself when I was a kid.
At the time of the second journal entry, we had just finished a sheep eyeball
dissection in class.
This apparently
made a big
impression on Pedro
since it was the sole
object of his entry,
Photograph 3. 4 Sample of Pedro's Journaling
³ZKDWLVWKHWKLQJWKDW
\RXKDYHOLNHGWKHEHVWDERXWDQ\VFLHQFHFODVV"´ (see Photograph 3.4). He describes in
detail the cutting motions and the dark fluid that came out of the eyeball. I felt that the
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
44
fact that this dissection made such a big impression on him was a direct result of the
program model. The dual language science class and the general science classes were
deliberately designed to be rich in hands-on activities and labs. This is good for a
language learner because the understanding is aided by the additional context of the
experience instead of solely on language to understand.
In writing of what he liked best about school, Pedro appreciated science
experiments, math projects, and reading in Literacy. Again, these were examples of
program models. In the middle school level, students begin to think more abstractly and
increase in their ability to think critically. It is also an age where there needs to be a
concrete foundation to concepts and highly engaging activities. This also fits with brain
research that explains that the learning cycle involves experiential input that is abstracted
to a thought, tested against a mental hypothesis, and proven against a conclusion (Zull,
2005).
His journal entry for this prompt is shown in Photo 3.4. Pedro also exhibited an
error in transfer in his writing. It appeared that if he did not know the word that he would
use the English word and make it look Spanish. He wrote that what he liked about school
ZDV³OHHUHQOLWHULFLD´WRUHDGLQ/LWHUDF\>FODVV@7KHZRUGIRUOLWHUDF\LQ6SDQLVKLV
alfabetismo. He transferred what he knew in English, which appeared to be his dominant
language into his written Spanish by Latinizing the English word literacy. Pedro
continued to not write any accent marks throughout these entries that showed a
fossilization of his Spanish. Like Josefina, his Spanish from home likely was mostly
oral, and his written Spanish not a major part of home life.
Pedro enjoyed writing about animals and gave specific reasons for the animals he
selected as his favorites. I wondered if his journaling of animals such as lions,
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
45
crocodiles, and dinosaurs had any cultural or gender implications. He selected as his
IDYRULWHDQLPDO³HOOHyQ´WKH
lion), see photograph 3.5. I
noticed his use of adjectives
as he described the creature,
³UH\GHODVHOYD´NLQJRIWKH
MXQJOH³PX\IXHUWH´YHU\
VWURQJ³PX\UDSLGRV>VLF@´
Photograph 3.5 Pedro¶s F avorite Animal E ntry
(very fast). I pondered on the meaning of
these adjectives to a 12 or 13 year old boy of
Mexican heritage. I would have liked to explore some funds of knowledge to determine
if there were some valuable life experiences he could contribute to the class regarding
strength or speed. Perhaps in maintaining the image of machismo seen at this age he
included crocodiles and dinosaurs as animals that interested him; other powerful and
fearsome vertebrates.
,WZDVQRWVXUSULVLQJWRUHDGRI3HGUR¶VVHOHFWLRQRIEHLQJDQDQLPDO-like protist if
he had to be a unicellular organism. His entry on animals was his longest entry with 84
words, almost four times as many as his first entry. He chose an amoeba because it lives
in water, is a consumer, and reproduces asexually by cloning. However, he uses the
DSSDUHQWPDGHXSZRUGRI³FODPHD´ZKLFK,ZRQGHUHGLIKHPHDQW³FORQHD´7KHYHUE
LQ6SDQLVKLV³FORQDU´DQG3HGURZURWHZKDW,WKLQNZDV³FORQHDU´+HUHLVDQRWKHU
example of transfer. Pedro was familiar with the word and concept in English of cloning.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
46
He went to write about it in Spanish, his perceived weaker academic language of the two.
+HLQFRUUHFWO\SXWVDFRPPRQ6SDQLVKHQGLQJRI³DU´RQ3 WKH(QJOLVKIRUPRI³WRFORQH´
Beverly
Survey and background. Beverly was a native English speaker that attended the
GLVWULFW¶VELOLQJXDOHOHPHQWDU\VFKRRO6KHZURWHWKDWVKHKDGZULWWHQLQ6SDQLVKIRU³
\HDUVRUOHVV´,ILUVWPHW%HYHUO\DQGKHUPRWKHUDWWKH)DOO2SHQKRXVHDW/DQGPDUN
Middle School. Beverly expressed some concern before school started that she struggled
with all the extra Spanish words in everyday conversation that she did not know. This
PDWFKHGZLWKKHUDQVZHUWRWKHVXUYH\TXHVWLRQ³:KDWZRXOG\RXFKDQJHDERXW\RXU
ZULWLQJ"´6KHDQVZHUHGWKDWVKHZRXOGFhange her Spanish vocabulary, presumably to
LQFUHDVHLW,WZDVDJRDORI%HYHUO\¶VWRZULWHFRUUHFWO\LQ6SDQLVK$IXUWKHUDPELWLRQ
for Beverly was to publish a book someday. Her earliest memory with writing was when
she wrote informational booklets in 1st grade. She found it difficult when she did not
know the verbs or words to write in Spanish. The researcher observed that her journals
had these words signaled by writing the word in English and underlining it, as if to say,
³7KLVLVWKHZRUG,ZDQWEXWGRQRWNQRZLW´
Beverly enlightened me as to the extent of Spanish literature in the home being
limited to a couple of picture books and a chapter book. On the other hand, there was an
abundance of English literature of all kinds and in different levels. Her parents were both
college graduates and in professional careers. Being a native English speaker and
Spanish language learner, she exclusively used English at home.
3
1RWHWKHVH³HDU´YHUEVFOLTXHDUWRFOLFN-like on the computer), balancear (to balance), bloquear (to
block), hornear (to bake), golpear (to hit or strike), zapatear (to stomp or kick)
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
47
Journals. ,GHWHUPLQHGWKDW%HYHUO\¶VILUVWMRXUQDOZDVDWDQ,QWHUPHGLDte Low
level of the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. The Intermediate level is characterized by
³>XVLQJ@EDVLFYRFDEXODU\DQGVWUXFWXUHVWRH[SUHVVPHDQLQJWKDWLVFRPSUHKHQVLEOHWR
those accustomed to the writing of non-natives (Swender, et al. 2012, p. 13)´,REVHUYHG
basic errors in grammar and spelling. There was some repetitive structure and topics
were tied to highly predictable content and personal information. Her journals were
written primarily in the present tense and could meet practical writing needs that
communicated facts and ideas of personal interest (Swender, et al. 2012).
7KHUHZDVREYLRXVJURZWKLQ%HYHUO\¶VDFDGHPLFZULWLQJZKHQFRPSDULQJKHU
first and last journal entries such as in figure 3.3. She produced over 20 words more in
the same amount of journal time and improved her verb conjugation and more correctly
Figure 3.3
matched her nouns and adjectives
4XDQWLWDWLYH$QDO\VLVRI%HYHUO\¶V-RXUQDOV
significantly. In her final entry she
Analysis Item
# of words
# of sentences
% words spelled right
% matching
nouns/adjectives
% Verbs conjugated
right
% complete sentences
% words in Spanish
1st
Journal
110
9
90
71
Last
Journal
133
10
95
87
40
57
100
93
100
99
attempted to use past tense once as well.
Analysis of the last journal came to the
FRQFOXVLRQWKDW%HYHUO\¶VZULWLQJKDG
improved to the Intermediate High level
RIWKH$&7)/¶VSURILFLHQF\JXLGHOLQHV
6KHZURWHLQ³SDUDJUDSKOHQJWK´DQG,
ZDVFRQILGHQWWKDW³HYHQZLWKQXPHURXVDQGSHUKDSVVLJQLILFDQWHUURUV>WKHwriting was]
generally comprehensible to natives not used to the writing of non-natives, but there
>ZHUH@OLNHO\WREHJDSVLQFRPSUHKHQVLRQ6ZHQGHUHWDOS´
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
48
)XUWKHUPRUHWKHMRXUQDO¶VYRFDEXODU\JUDPPDUDQGVW\OHFRUUHVSRQGHGWR
%HYHUO\¶s spoken language. I believed that she would be able to meet all practical
ZULWLQJQHHGVRIWKLVOHYHOZKLFKLQFOXGHG³VLPSOHPHVVDJHVDVNDQGUHVSRQGWRVLPSOH
TXHVWLRQV´DQGFRPPXQLFDWHVLPSOHIDFWVDQGLGHDVLQ³ORRVHO\FRQQHFWHGVHQWHQFHV´
(Swender, et al., 2012, p. 13).
%HYHUO\¶VILUVWHQWU\DERXWXVLQJHQHUJ\LQHYHU\GD\OLIHVKRZHGDJRRG
NQRZOHGJHRIWKHFRQFHSW6KHZURWHWKDW³WXFXHUSRXVHVHQHUJLDHQWRGRVORV
movimientos, even cuando nosotros blink RUHVSLUDU>VLF@´\RXUERG\XVHVHQHUJ\ in all
its movements, even when we blink or breathe). Her specific examples of using energy
LQFOXGHGWDNLQJRXWWKHJDUEDJHDQG³WDPELHQXVDQHQHUJLDSDUDSLHQVD\HVFULELUORV
UHVSXHVWDVGHSUHJXQWDV>VLF@´DOVRLWXVHVHQHUJ\WRWKLQNDQGZULWHWKHDQswers to
questions). These examples also demonstrated her writing proficiency well. It was clear
that she could communicate and show ideas using the Spanish language. It was also clear
that verb conjugations were still at a developmentally low level. As a program model,
students in the bilingual elementary school were encouraged to develop at their own
level. Beverly could clearly communicate well to someone accostumed to language
learners and I believed could communicate with those not accostumed to language
learners as well.
³:KDWKDVEHHQWKHEHVWVFLHQFHFODVV"´HOLFLWHG%HYHUO\¶VSUHIHUHQFHIRUKDQGVRQH[SHULPHQWV³*XVWDactually touching ODVFRVDV´,OLNHWRDFWXDOO\WRXFKWKHWKLQJV
I wondered if the underlining of words was part of the dual language program model. In
a way, especially in a timed writing exercise, it was good to put an English word down
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
49
and move on when she did not know it in Spanish, rather than use up time wondering
about it.
,QWKLVHQWU\VKHXVHGSDVWWHQVHWZLFHDQGIXWXUHRQFH³<RPHJXVWDHO(VSDxRO
SRUTXHHQHOIXWXURYR\DD\XGDPDVVDELDQXQVHFXQGRODQJXDJH>VLF@´,OLNH6SDQLVK
because in the future it will help more if you know a second language). This statement
ZDVLOOXVWUDWLYHWRPHRI%HYHUO\¶VODQJXDJHGHYHORSPHQWEHFDXVHLWKDGWZRH[DPSOHVRI
WUDQVIHU6KHFDSLWDOL]HG³(VSDxRO´EHFDXVHLQ(QJOLVKZHFDSLWDOL]HWKHQDPHVRI
ODQJXDJHV+RZHYHUWKLVLVQRWWKHFDVHLQ6SDQLVK$OVRVKHPLVVSHOOHG³VHFXQGR´
VHJXQGRNHHSLQJWKH³F´WKDW
is in the English word. Other
transfer items I would expect to
find in her writing included
using the wrong article, such as
el or la, with a noun. In this
entire entry she used correct
articles with her nouns.
She seemed to get
accents just a little better than
Josefina and Pedro. She put an
DFFHQWRQWKHZRUG³WDPELpQ´
(also) a few times, but not
others. She put an accent on
Photograph 3. 6 Sample of Beverly's Journaling
³FpOXODV´FHOOV³I~WERO´VRFFHU
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
50
³SRVLFLyQ´SRVLWLRQ³FDIp´EURZQDQG³GtD´GD\ZKLFKWKHRWKHUWZRSDUWLFLSDQWV
would probably have not put, even though they were native Spanish speakers. There was
a sign of maturity in language development in the sense that Beverly did not put accents
on words that did not need them. Sometimes I had observed other Spanish language
learners in the class try to compensate for accents by putting them haphazardly on words.
Surprisingly to me, I did not notice other signs of transfer that could be common for
Spanish language learners such as putting the adjective before the noun instead of after it.
It was fruitful to ask Beverly what she liked best about school of which her
journal is Photo 3.5. She wrote the most words, 135, to answer this. She also used the
most English in an entry for this one. Presumably, this was an effect of her school day
being in English except for science class. Many of the words she was familiar with to
describe her many activities were unknown to her in Spanish. The reader can see in the
UHVSRQVHWRKHUMRXUQDOWKDW,PRGHOHGWKHFRUUHFWXVHRI³JXVWDU´WROLNH,W was
LQWHUHVWLQJWRGLVFRYHUWKDW%HYHUO\XVHG³JXVWDU´WROLNHRUWREHSOHDVLQJWRFRUUHFWO\
five of 12 times throughout all her entries. I would deliberately put in a Spanish word for
DZRUGWKDWVKHXQGHUOLQHGVXFKDV³FDUUHUD´UDFH,WDSSHDUHG that this dialogue journal
method had an effect on her writing since some of the times she would use a word
correctly that she had misused before.
,HQMR\HGILQGLQJIXQGVRINQRZOHGJHLQ%HYHUO\¶VHQWU\DERXWKHUIDYRULWHDQLPDO
as seen in Photograph 3.7 . She described riding a horse at her great-grandfathers.
³4XLHUHXQRFXDQGRTXHYHFDIpFRQXQRVVSRWVGHOFRORUEODQFD>VLF@´,ZDQWRQHWKDW,
see brown with some white spots). Again she included a word with an accent that the
other participants would probably have missed. She also used the past tense in this entry.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
51
³0LGLYHUWLHQsmelling HO³smell´\RLUHOVRQLGRGHFDEDOORV>VLF@´,KDGIXQVPHOOLQJ
the smell and hearing the sound of horses). One major element to the development of
%HYHUO\¶s Spanish as well
as -RVHILQD¶VDQG3HGUR¶VLV
the concept of language
learning versus language
acquisition. Language
learning involves direct
instruction about language
Photograph 3.7 Beverly¶s F avorite Animal E ntry
and grammar whereas language acquisition
has indirect instruction on grammar.
KrashHQH[SODLQHGWKDWDFTXLVLWLRQLVD³VXEFRQVFLRXV´SURFHVVVXFKDVKRZRQHOHDUQV
KHUILUVWODQJXDJH0HDQZKLOHODQJXDJHOHDUQLQJLV³FRQVFLRXV´DQGLQYROYHV³NQRZLQJ
DERXW´DODQJXDJH0LWFKHOO& Myles 2004, p.45). Each of the students in this class were
educated in a dual langauge immersion model of having half of their instructional time in
each language.
%HYHUO\¶VODVWHQWU\SURGXFHGKHUKLJKHVWTXDOLW\6SDQLVKJUDPPDUDQGVSHOOLQJ
This was telling because it was a highly academic prompt to pick a unicellular organism
that she would want to be. I observed that she was most comfortable with Spanish in the
academic setting rather than in the conversational setting. I inferred this due to
the production of journal entries and willingness to answer in class. However, when
necessity required use of casual or conversational Spanish that we were not studying,
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
52
Beverly seemed to instinctively revert to English as the language to ask me questions or
explain an answer.
O verall E ffect of the Interactive L anguage Journal
An improvement in academic writing was observed in the journal writings and in
the science notebook. Each student had more complete science notebooks, which
Figure 3.4
included the vocabulary
ACT FL Writing Proficiency Beginning/End
target pages, sketching
Participant
ACTFL Writing
Proficiency Week 8
Advanced Mid
Brain on Paper pages, and
Josefina
ACTFL Writing
Proficiency Week 1
Advanced Low
Pablo
Intermediate High
Advanced Low
the second unit than in the
Beverly
Intermediate Low
Intermediate High
homework assignments, in
ILUVW(DFKVWXGHQW¶V
writing grew when
comparing the last journal entry to the first. See figure 3.4 for the qualitative analysis of
each participant. Although other factors may have contributed to improvement in both
quantity and quality of academic Spanish writing, the interactive language journal gave a
place for formal and informal writing, high stakes and low stakes writing. The science
notebook component mostly scripted notes and vocabulary for the
students to learn. Notwithstanding, the science notebook modeled correct Spanish and
gave opportunity for students to produce their own sentences, analogies, and responses to
homework assignments. The dialogue journal gave the opportunity for the students to
use some of the academic language learned in class in a different context as journal
entries. The change over the eight weeks was that each participant began to use a
complex grammar structure, such as gustar, or accents correctly where they were seen to
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
53
have done it incorrectly only weeks before. Each produced more written Spanish in the
same amount of time and that quantity was marked with significant growth in quality of
grammar as well.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
54
C hapter 4: Connections and Considerations
Connections Between Results and L iterature
Science notebooks. A common format for science notebooks is a collection of
highly scaffolded, written notes (Carter, Hernandez, & Richardson 2009). The student
takes guided notes in their notebook including the pasting in of graphic organizers, data
tables, and graphs in many current science notebooks. My participants were given their
journal/notebook as loose-leaf pages that were stapled together at the end of the unit. The
science notebook part of my interactive language journal worked as the guided note
taking component of their notebook. The notes were also highly scaffolded to ensure
students received accurate and correct concepts.
Worth, Moriarty, and Winokur (2004) affirmed that interactive notebooks
promote writing through science content in consequence of the problem-based nature of
the discipline. Writing is the natural vehicle to communicate the inquiry process of
wondering, investigating, and reflecting.
I found that Josefina wrote paragraphs in her
journals about mushrooms, winter, and penguins. In her interview question, she stated
that she did not like to write. Clearly, the journal write promoted her writing through the
PHGLXPRIVFLHQFH$OVRRIQRWHZDV3HGUR¶VWKUHH-fourths of a page that he wrote on the
sheep eyeball dissection. This turned out to be his longest entry and again, the interactive
MRXUQDOJDYHKLPWKHFRQWH[WWRZULWHWKURXJKWKHPHGLXPRIVFLHQFH%HYHUO\¶VSHUVRQDO
and passionate entries about riding horses, and further her pride in her running races and
competing on premier soccer teams found expression in the interactive notebook. Thus,
WKHVHVWXGHQWV¶ZULWLQJGHYHORSHGWKURXJKWKHVFLHQFHMRXUQDOLQJ,VHHWKHVHSKHQRPHQD
DVVXSSRUWIRUWKHQRWLRQRI³ZULWLQJWROHDUQ´UDWKHUWKDQ³OHDUQLQJWRZULWH´
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
55
In keeping with the intriguing study by Miller and Calfee (2004), I focused on
student journal writing as a means to help make their thinking visible. In the target page
where students recorded learning goals, vocabulary words, definitions, sentences,
analogies, and drawings, I saw the abstract academic vocabulary become observable from
WKHVWXGHQW¶VSRLQWRIYLHZ%HYHUO\JDYHKHUXQGHUVWDQGLQJRIWKHVFLHQFHFRQFHSWRI
adaptation by creating the analogy that related adaptations to DNA as time of year is
related to seasons. She gave her understanding of concentration with the drawing of
cubes of different sizes. Further science notebook pages (scaffolded notes) in the
LQWHUDFWLYHQRWHERRNLQFOXGHGVNHWFKHVDQGUHDGLQJVWUDWHJLHVWKDWPDGHWKHVWXGHQW¶V
thoughts on what they read visible.
Braxton (1998) conducted action research on the effect of interactive science
notebooks on academic vocabulary development among upper elementary level science
students. Her data showed improvement in both the writing and scientific understanding
DVVKRZQE\VWXGHQWV¶YRFDEXODU\XVDJH5HVXOWVRIP\DFWLRQUHVHDUFKUHYHDOHGWKDW
each case study improved their Spanish writing quantitatively and qualitatively. Beverly,
for example, used academic science Spanish wonderfully in her journals when she used
reproduction, energy role, and habitat.
Research of how teachers can review science notebooks uncovered the
problematic nature of over-structuring the science notebook (Shepardson & Britsch,
2004). It turns out that lines on the paper could prevent the creative use of sketches,
thereby limiting student journaling. Too much structure, it was argued, can stifle the
student self-organization that gives ownership to the student (Shepardson & Britsch,
2004). Certain pages of the interactive language journal my students used had blank
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
56
space in the upper half and lines on the lower. This format gave opportunity to sketch
and write on the same page. This became a compromise between total teacher-directed
note-taking and purely student-generated design.
Worth, Moriarty, and Winokur (2004) wrote about the engaging nature of writing
WROHDUQFRQWHQW,REVHUYHGWKLVSKHQRPHQRQWKURXJKRXWWKHDFWLRQUHVHDUFK%HYHUO\¶V
entry about choosing to be a plant-like protist showed strong use of content-specific
words. The engagement was remarkable in entries that revealed mushroom hills near
-RVHILQD¶VKRPHDQG3DEOR¶VZULWLQJRIKRZPXFKWKHGLVVHFWLRQZDVHQMR\HG2WKHUVLQ
the class were seen to have written a page worth of journaling when it was difficult to get
them to participate much in the science learning. Therefore, writing became another tool
to engage a few students that did not seem to enjoy the science content as much.
The use of cognitive or picture dictionaries have been shown to aid in the
GHYHORSPHQWRIODQJXDJHOHDUQHUV%UHFKWHO0\VWXGHQWV¶XVHRIZKDWZHWHUPHG
³7DUJHW´SDJHVZDVDYHUVLRQRIWKLVNLQGRIVWXGHQW-generated dictionary. Students
demonstrated metacognition through their often inaccurate predictions of new words and
in sentence context versus their more accurate drawings and analogies that they made
after learning the meaning of the word.
Interactive journals. Journals in higher education settings are becoming
common as a reflective writing tool to abstract class discussions or practical experiences.
Redman (2005) struggled to lead class discussions of her college language students. She
GHVLJQHGWKHUHDGLQJMRXUQDOWRVFDIIROGWKHVWXGHQW¶VVWXG\RIOLWHUDWXUHDQGEHDFRPPRQ
starting point for class discussions. I observed that my students also hesitated to
participate in classroom discussions. The science notebook component of the interactive
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
57
language journal served the same purpose for my students. They had accurate and
relevant notes. The journal prompt that asked which protist the student would want to be
led most students to re-read their notes about the unicellular organisms we studied. I was
impressed with the depth of thought that came from writing those prompts. Each
assessment given in class was written with the science notebook to be used as a reference.
A study conducted at Brigham Young University by Brown, Solovieva and Eggett
(2011) analyzed the academic writing of language students that had strong conversation
and oral proficiency. They came to understand that their students had little formal
writing instruction. They had hoped that writing output would drastically increase
throughout the study. Instead they found that it maintained or even decreased. However,
further analysis showed that writing quality drastically increased. It was as if the
proficient speakers needed to unlearn conversation errors in transfer to writing. My first
language Spanish students demonstrated strong oral proficiency, although their writing
showed consistent errors in use of accents and the letter H. Later dialogue journal entries
showed that both Josefina and Pedro were using accents on such words as energía
(energy) and question words. Beverly began to use the reflexive verb gustar (to like)
correctly by later entries. It was as if these three were unlearning mistakes in the transfer
from conversation (in which accents are not seen) to formal writing. This is a resetting of
their language parameters (Mitchell & Myles, 2006)
The rather intuitive finding of the use of prior knowledge, inference, and language
proficiency in writing development by Hammadou (1991) further cemented the practice
of accessing these three concepts when having students write. Our vocabulary target
pages extracted prior knowledge and inference through the use of prediction, writing
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
58
sentences, drawing the word, and generating an analogy. Students needed to infer the
meaning of new words and use them in a sentence. This gave them a chance to draw
upon their lived experiences in their writing. Writing proficiency measurably improved
as shown in Chapter 3. I purposely selected prompts for the journal entries that would
DZDNHQSULRUNQRZOHGJHVXFKDV³ZKDWZDV\RXUIDYRULWHVFLHQFHOHVVRQ"+RZGR\RX
use energy HYHU\GD\":KDWLV\RXUIDYRULWHSODQWRUDQLPDO"´7KLVSUDFWLFHHQVXUHGWKDW
each student would have prior knowledge to write about.
The use of interactive journals has become popular in many higher education
programs such as science, nursing, and oXWGRRUUHFUHDWLRQ2¶&RQQHOODQG'\PHQW
(2006) wondered how to teach their students to write reflectively rather than just
descriptively. They found that the reflective skills needed to be explicitly taught and
practiced. My students did much of descriptive writing in their science notebook with the
taking of notes and filling of target sheets. Even their reading strategies resulted in more
of a description of what they wrote than what they were thinking. However, some of the
writing from what they read caused them to reflect on what they already knew, what was
interesting, and what they still did not understand. They also had reflective writing as
seen in their dialogue journals. By making the journal entries a low stakes writing
assignment and in the format of a written conversation, I found that students naturally
reflected through their writing. This was the part that the students would not normally
experience in their science class except it were for the dialogue journal. Brain research
supports the practice of using journaling to reflect on what was learned, especially as a
closing task. Sousa (2006) suggested reflective writing two or three times a week in a
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
59
journal. My students had a reflective writing prompt at the end of each class in the form
of an exit ticket that they wrote on sticky notes.
Dialogue journals. Peyton (1987) is recognized as the authority on dialogue
journals. This writing strategy is to take the form of a written conversation between the
teacher and the student. It is a low-stakes, student-centered, and student-led activity. The
teacher takes the role of participant rather than evaluator. Thus, there is no explicit
correction of grammar, spelling, or mechanics. The teacher skillfully responds to the
student modeling correct conventions but only at a little bit higher level than what the
student wrote. I followed this pattern and saw that Josefina and Pablo started putting
accents on some of the words, while Beverly started to conjugate more accurately, even
with gustar. The fact of being low-stakes writing in a system of high-stakes testing
makes a big difference to the student where focus on correct writing stifles the
productivity of the activity (Peyton, 1987). This improvement came from only five
dialogue journal entries that augmented the science notebook. Imagine the difference
with a semester of dialogue journaling! Ample evidence and experience show that the
dialogue journal gives the power to the student to write at his level and about things that
were meaningful to him. To me, this gives further credibility to its need as part of the
curriculum.
Research of language acquisition describes language routes (Mitchell & Myles,
2004) or that each learner comes to understand language structure and grammar in her
own way. This would mean that direct instruction on grammar would only aid the
student if it fits her language route. Dialogue journals provide the ideal medium for each
student to receive indirect instruction of grammar as it fits her language route. I noted
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
60
that Pablo wrote in bullets for his first entry. His other entries were in paragraph form.
Pablo and Josefina were Spanish first students and they displayed the common errors of
mixing up letter with the same phonetic sound, such as b and v; s, c, and z. When I
responded to their entries, I used the words they mistook several times correctly. Beverly
was an English first student and her Spanish spelling was strong. However, her
conjugation of verbs was still developing. Her language route was different than those of
her peers. Similarly, I responded to her entries with focus on her weak areas.
Nassaji and Cumming (2000) studied how dialogue journals allow for the
proximal zone of development in writing. Each student entry that I read and wrote in
response to was at a different level of language proficiency. If the student wrote only a
few lines, then I only wrote a few lines. If the student wrote a few paragraphs, then I
would write more. Each case study participant improved the quality and quantity of their
writing. My responses targeted on their language needs and I wrote at what Krashen
called i +1 (Mitchell & Myles, 2004). This allowed for an implicit language lesson that
was developmentally appropriate for each entry response.
The ongoing question of correction in a language class was put to the test in the
study by Pessoa, Hendry, Donato, Tucker and Lee (2007). They found that implicit
correction in a Spanish content classroom brought about greater results than the direct
instruction of grammar. My dual language class was supposed to include Spanish
literacy as well as science content. Dialogue journals allowed for me to give targeted and
specific implicit instruction for each student. For example, Beverly used gustar (to like)
correctly five out of eight times in her entries. My responses included the correct usage
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
61
VHYHUDOWLPHVLQFRQWH[W3DEORDQG-RVHILQD¶VUHVSRQVHVIURPPHKDGULFKH[DPSOHVRI
accents as implicit correction and they improved their use of accents.
Implications For M y Teaching
Dialogue journals can require up to ten minutes of attention for each entry. This
becomes an almost impossible burden on teachers who are required to maximize their
time between planning, assessing, communicating with parents, and teaching. I argue
that the benefits of dialogue journals as shown in this action research outweigh the time
burden imposed by them. Each participant improved their academic writing in a few
ZHHNV,OHDUQHGVWXGHQWV¶IXQGVRINQRZOHGJHDQGGLscovered their schema through their
writing in a way that time would not permit otherwise. I came to value the connections
forged between teacher and student in the 2-way written conversation. This vital link
with students is needed in schools that are high poverty and low achieving. Each student,
who as teachers we believe is capable of learning and has the potential to be successful,
will thrive when she can count on complete teacher attention at least once a week on
whatever she chooses to write about.
Some of the variables that alter the dialogue journal experience include the giving
of prompts or free-writes, having a time limit or not, writing on paper or typing on the
computer, and writing the entries in or out of class. As I reflect on the Landmark Middle
School student population, I wonder which combination is the best. Easily half of the
students do not have internet access at home which rules out the use of an online
discussion board format. The age and academic maturity of the students leads me to
believe that the absence of a prompt would leave too many of the students spending most
of their time wondering what to write about. I suggest the compromise of a specific
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
62
prompt for students with the understanding that they could free-write if they so desired.
Also due to the organizational deficiencies of many students, the dialogue journal should
stay in the classroom so that it will not be lost. This reality rules out the possibility of
doing the dialogue journal outside of class if I were to reasonably expect every student to
bring it back.
I wonder how to involve peers with the dialogue journals. I believe that this
would alleviate some of the burden of reading several entries in a short amount of time.
This would also allow those with higher Spanish proficiency to be more capable peers to
those with lower proficiency. I envision the written conversations as a place for student
relationships to deepen as a sense of community is fostered.
This action research used loose-leaf pages that were later stapled together to form
a science notebook. Loose pages were used for students to journal in and collected for
me to respond to. Next time, I would like to have a bound notebook to write in. I like to
use hard cover composition books, but I felt that the book would intimidate students and
be an obstacle for the several students who lacked basic organization in their binders and
backpacks. I would also like to be clear that dialogue journals should be written in
paragraph form. Although Pedro was only one of a couple students to write in bullets in
his first journal entry, I wonder if he would have written in paragraph form if I had made
it more explicit. My next semester class will utilize a soft cover notebook of 80 pages. I
felt that it was a compromise to the bigger notebooks, and will feel less intimidating.
Students will leave the notebook in the classroom.
Further reflection on the use of the interactive language journal caused me to
ponder if the notes were over-scaffolded. Most of the written work in the science
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
63
notebook part of the interactive language journal was shown on the projector to be copied
onto the page. At least, I could be sure that correct language was modeled, yet I
wondered if there was a more engaging, thought provoking way to give them the same
information. I think that it would be beneficial to do expert groups to allow more oral
interaction in the notetaking process. I observed that a handful of students were hesitant
to speak in front of the class that could have spoken in small groups in those situations.
The most impressionable reflection of the interactive language journal was the
need for students in this particular dual language program to receive Spanish literacy
instruction. Partway through the research process, I learned that the district expectation
of the class was that students would continue to receive literacy instruction in addition to
the content. This had not been explained to me before. In fact, both dual language
teachers in the school learned halfway through the semester that this was an expectation.
Both of us had seen that it was a need.
Therefore, I proposed to the principal at Landmark Middle School (LMS) a plan
to meet both the need for Spanish literacy and content teaching. At LMS there is built
into the school day a 45-minute class that is reserved for interventions in math and
reading or for enrichment. I proposed that this Monday through Thursday time slot be
used for the dual language students to receive formal Spanish literacy instruction. I
believe that a deliberate, targeted grouping could result in a highly beneficial class for
native Spanish speakers to improve their first language and transfer to English and for
native English speakers to receive another class in Spanish as they grow their
vocabularies and practice their conjugations. To me, this plan gives the needed literacy
work without compromising the vigor and quality of content instruction. It disturbs few
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
64
student schedules and will be an intervention that improves reading scores and by
consequence math scores.
Both of us dual language teachers have formal Spanish
language training and experience teaching Spanish as a foreign language. This plan uses
our training and expertise and fulfills a need for our bilingual students.
Implications For F uture Resea rch
There is an abundant quantity of research into interactive science notebooks.
Some schools that I have worked in have even extended the interactive notebooks to their
math and social studies classes. There is also a good amount of research of dialogue
journals. The unique nature of the interactive language journal is that it marries the two
forms into a tool that models correct language, allows for student-generated, low stakes
SURGXFWLRQDQGLQYROYHVWKHWHDFKHUDVDSDUWLFLSDQWLQWKHVWXGHQW¶VODQJXDge journey.
There are many schools with high numbers of language learners. This tool could be
something that aids in a language learner progress toward English proficient. The dual
interactive notebook/journal gives place for notetaking, language learning, and student
ownership of work.
A need that I see for the interactive language journal is high-quality, open-ended,
and student relevant prompts. A pure dialogue journal would not have any prompts, but
be completely in the hands on the learner. I envision that my particular student
population lacks the motivation, maturity, or skills to generate all their entries on their
own. I like to see the use of academic language or vocabulary in the context of a journal
entry. The prompts also encourage hesitant teachers to try a dialogue journal by giving
the structure they may fear is absent in the tool. I wonder what the research informs
about the benefits of prompts. According to my experience and research, some students
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
65
would need a prompt or they would spend the entire writing time thinking of what to
write. I think a combination of specific and general prompts will use writing to make
VWXGHQW¶VWKLQNLQJYLVLEOH,WZRXOGHYHQRXWWKHHIIHFWRIVSHFLILFYHUVXVJHQHUDO
prompts.
There is focused research of intercity populations of high poverty and high
language learner populations. What about rural schools of high poverty, low literacy
populations? I wonder how the interactive language journal would fare in another
population type. How would it improve writing in richer districts? I see a need for
further research in these different school populations.
There is also a need for research of dual language program models. These
programs are relatively far and few between. The Inlet School District that Landmark
Middle School is a part of is one of the only in the state that offers content area classes
(such as science) in a bilingual format. Much of the information the district used in
forming the program came from a dual language school in Texas. Further research into
teaching academic writing would be useful for the implementation of the interactive
language journal as well. Also at the program level is how best to motivate middle
school students. This district has plans to offer dual language classes beyond the middle
school. They also want to offer an exit exam after the seven years of bilingual classes
that could earn the student credit for Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 at the high school level.
This would be a powerful motivation for students that want to go to college because they
could earn their foreign language requirement before they even got to high school.
Motivation is a serious issue probably in most schools, but particularly in high poverty
schools. Many students do not see the relevance of school in their lives or how they
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
66
could be successful. More students do not have basic needs met which in turn makes
learning more of a challenge.
The interactive language journal could take part in further research of using lowstakes writing to develop skills and confidence for high-stakes writing assessments.
Students in public schools start high-stakes testing in early grades during the most
formative years of their lives. There is a need in schools to use low-stakes writing tasks
WR³ZULWHWROHDUQ´DVZHOODVWKHFRPPRQ³OHDUQLQJWRZULWH´SKLORVRSK\
Current funds of knowledge research can be advanced through use of the
interactive language journal. Students have the opportunity to record a written
conversation in which the teacher discovers their valuable lived experiences and can
reference them in journal responses or in class discussion. The use of funds of
knowledge will automatically bring relevance and meaning to curriculum because it
comes from what the students value the most, their own lived experiences that those of
their support systems such as family.
F inal T houghts
This interactive language journal action research project was developed from the
research specific to the use of science notebooks, interactive journals, and dialogue
journals. The practice of journaling was modified to specially fit the needs of Landmark
0LGGOH6FKRRO¶VGXDOODQJXDJHSRSXODWLRQ7KHFDVHVWXG\SDUWLFLSDQWVGHPRQVWUDWHG
growth in the quality and quantity of their writing. Even with all the extant literature
available on the use of interactive notebooks/journals and dialogue journals for native
English-speaking students, there is still a need to further study the effect of the interactive
language journal as a language acquisition tool for ELLs in grades K-12.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
67
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Appendix A: Letter of Consent in English
Dear Parent or Guardian:
0\QDPHLV%HQ)OR\G,DP\RXUVWXGHQW¶VVFLHQFHWHDFKHUDQG,DPFXUUHQWO\ZRUNLQJ
towards obtaining a Masters of Education at The Evergreen State College E r ror!
Reference sou rce not found.. The goal of my research is to determine what effect using
the science notebook with dialogue journaling has on the acquisition of Spanish science
vocabulary of dual language learners. Our principal, Mr. Barkman has approved this
study, knowing that participation is voluntary and requires parent/guardian permission.
The information provided by your student will be used to create my Action Research
Project. All information obtained will be used solely for this purpose. The identities of
the participants will be confidential, and any identity markers will be erased from the
study. Pseudonyms will be used for all participants including the teacher, school, and
school district. The final paper will include samples of student work, photograph(s) of
interactions in the classroom that aid in vocabulary acquisition, and answers from survey
RULQIRUPDOLQWHUYLHZTXHVWLRQVUHJDUGLQJWKHVWXGHQW¶VDWWLWXGHDERXWZULWLQJ
Any risks to the students will be minimal. Students might feel a small amount of
embarrassment due to their actions being documented. Students will not be offered
compensation for their participation in this study. The benefits of participating in the
research will be to inform best practices in dual language programs. The activities named
above are things that I would normally do in the course of my instruction. Permission is
needed in this case because I will use this data to write my action research paper.
My classmates of the masters program as well as my professors will help me produce this
final product. All confidentiality of the participants will be sustained. At written request, I
will provide you with a copy of the final draft. Any participation is voluntary and can be
withdrawn at any time.
)HHOIUHHWRFRQWDFWPHLI\RXKDYHDQ\TXHVWLRQVDERXWWKLVSURMHFWRU\RXUFKLOG¶V
participation in it. You can call me at 360-918-1937. My e-mail address is
[email protected]. The person to contact if you experience problems as result of
your participation in this project is John McLain, Academic Dean at The Evergreen State
College, Library 2002, Olympia, WA 98505: phone (360) 867-6972.
Thank you for your participation.
Sincerely,
Ben Floyd
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
72
Appendix B: Letter of Consent in Spanish
Estimados Padres o el Guardián,
Me llamo Ben Floyd y soy el maestro de ciencia de su estudiante. Estoy trabajando para
completar mi educación de maestría en The Evergreen State College. La meta de mi
investigación es averigüar el efecto de usar el cuaderno de ciencia con una parte de diario
de diágolo en como adquieren vocabulario de ciencia los estudiantes del programa
bilingüe. El director, Sr. Barkman me permite hacer este estudio en la escuela con al
saber que se necesita el permiso de padres o guardián y con la certeza que partipación es
voluntario.
Cualquier información colectada sólo será utilizada para escribir mi papel de
investigación. Las identidades de los estudiantes serán mantenidas privadas con el uso de
seudónimos por nombres de estudiantes, escuela, y maestro. El papel final incluirá
muestra(s) de tarea del estudiante, foto(s) de interacción que ayuda aprender vocabulario,
y respuestas de encuesta/entrevista sobre la actitud de escribir.
No hay riesgo a su estudiante para su participación menos de quizás sentir vergüenza en
ser observado por la investigación. No hay compensación para participar en la
investigación. El beneficio de participar en esta investigación es para informar la mejor
manera de ensenar en programas bilingües. Estas son actividades que yo haría en mi
clase aúnque no hiciera una investigación. Es necesario obtener permiso solo porque
usaré esta información para escribir mi papel de investigación.
Mis companeros de clase del programa de maestría y mis profesores me ayudarán en
completar mi papel de investigación. Toda confidencialidad será mantenido. Proveeré
una copia del papel final si me da una petición escrita. La participación es voluntaria y
puedes parar de participar en en cualquier momento.
Siéntase libre de contactarme si tiene cualquier pregunta acerca de este proyecto o de la
participación de su niño. Me puede llamar en 360-918-1937. Me puede contactar por
correo electrónico en [email protected]. La persona de contactar si hay
problemas al participar en la investigación es John McLain, Academic Dean en The
Evergreen State College, Library 2002, Olympia, WA 98505: teléfono (360) 867-6972.
Gracias por su participación.
Sinceramente,
Ben Floyd
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
73
Appendix C: Consent Form in English
I, __________________________, give permission for my student to participate in the
UHVHDUFKSURMHFW³7KHHIIHFWRIWKHLQWHUDFWLYHODQJXDJHMRXUQDORQGXDOODQJXDJHVWXGHQWV
YRFDEXODU\LQTXLVLWLRQ´,KDYHEHHQLQIRUPHGWKDWWKHLQIRUPDWLRQREWDLQHGLQWKLV
research will only be used by Ben Floyd to write his Action Research Paper. The identity
of your student in the research will be protected and not shared with anyone. I
understand that the only risk in participating may be a little embarrassment at being
observed for the research paper. I will be given a final copy of the research paper upon
written request. I understand that any participation is voluntary and that I can withdraw
at any time.
I understand that if I have any questions about this research I can call Ben Floyd at 360918-1937 or e-mail him at [email protected].
The person to contact if there is a problem with the research is John McClain, Academic
Dean at The Evergreen State College, Library 2002, Olympia, WA 98505: phone (360)
867-6972.
Name of Student____________________________________________
Student Signature__________________________Date____________
Name of Parent/Guardian_______________________________________
Signature of Parent/Guardian________________________Date______
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
74
Appendix D: Consent Form in Spanish
Yo _______________________________, concuerda en participar en el proyecto de Ben
Floyd quien está estudiando actividades de ayudar estudiantes bilingües aprender
vocabulario. He sido dicho que la información completa por Ben Floyd sólo será
utilizada por escribir su papel de investigación. Las identidades de los estudiantes serán
protegidas y no serán compartidas con nadie. Comprendo que no hay riesgos a tomar
parte en esta investigación menos de quizás sentir un poco de vergüenza. Seré dado una
copia del papel final si hago una petición escrita. Comprendo que participar en este
proyecto es voluntario; puedo parar participar en en cualquier momento.
Comprendo que si tengo cualquier pregunta acerca de este proyecto o mi participación en
ello, yo puedo llamar a Ben Floyd en 360-918-1937 o por correo electrónico en
[email protected].
La persona para contactar si tengo problemas es John McLain, Academic Grants
Manager en The Evergreen State College, Library 2002, Olympia, WA 98505: numero
(360) 867-6045.
Nombre de estudiante____________________________________________
De Firma de estudiante__________________________Fecha____________
Nombre de Padre/Guardián_______________________________________
Firma de Padre/Guardián________________________Fecha______
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
75
Appendix E: Survey Questions
Write in the language you are most comfortable with. Escribe en el idioma en que estás
lo mas cómodo/a.
1. How many years have you written in Spanish at school? ¿Hace cuántos años
escribes en español en la escuela?
2. What kind of writing assignments have you done in school? ¿Qué tipos de
escritura has hecho en la escuela?
3. What do you like about writing? ¿Qué te gusta de escribir?
4. What do you dislike about writing? ¿Qué no te gusta de escribir?
5. What is easy about writing for you? ¿Qué es fácil en escribir?
6. What is hard about writing for you? ¿Qué es difícil en escribir?
7. How have you used writing in everyday life? ¿Cómo usas escritura en la vida
normal?
8. What would you like to accomplish with your writing? ¿Qué quieres lograr con la
escritura?
9. What would you change about your writing? ¿Qué cambiarías de tu escritura?
10. What is your earliest memory about writing? ¿Cuál es tu memoria más vieja de
escribir?
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
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Appendix F: Quantitative Data Analysis
Quantitative Analysis of Journals
Josefina
Analysis Item
1st Journal
2nd Journal
# of words
55
82
# of sentences
5
3
% words spelled
89
94
right
% matching
100
100
nouns/adjectives
% Verbs
100
100
conjugated right
% complete
80
100
sentences
% words in
100
100
Spanish
Pedro
# of words
23
69
# of sentences
0
4
% words spelled
87
90
right
% matching
100
100
nouns/adjectives
% Verbs
100
100
conjugated right
% complete
0
100
sentences
% words in
100
100
Spanish
Beverly
# of words
110
95
# of sentences
9
11
% words spelled
90
97
right
% matching
71
88
nouns/adjectives
% Verbs
40
41
conjugated right
% complete
100
100
sentences
% words in
93
89
Spanish
3rd Journal
136
8
93
4th Journal
68
6
90
5th Journal
113
7
94
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
94
100
98
74
4
93
84
7
96
49
5
98
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
80
100
100
100
135
13
97
105
13
99
133
10
95
78
70
87
64
62
57
100
100
100
80
88
99
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
77
Appendix G: Qualitative Analysis- ACTFL Intermediate Writing Guidelines
INTERMEDIATE
Writers at the Intermediate level are characterized by the ability to meet practical writing needs, such
as simple messages and letters, requests for information, and notes. In addition, they can ask and
respond to simple questions in writing. These writers can create with the language and communicate
simple facts and ideas in a series of loosely connected sentences on topics of personal interest and
social needs. They write primarily in present time. At this level, writers use basic vocabulary and
structures to express meaning that is comprehensible to those accustomed to the writing of nonnatives.
Intermediate High
Writers at the Intermediate High sublevel are able to meet all practical writing needs of the
Intermediate level. Additionally, they can write compositions and simple summaries related to work
and/or school experiences. They can narrate and describe in different time frames when writing about
everyday events and situations. These narrations and descriptions are
often but not always of paragraph length, and they typically contain some evidence of breakdown in
one or more features of the Advanced level. For example, these writers may be inconsistent in the use
of appropriate major time markers, resulting in a loss of clarity. The vocabulary, grammar, and style
of Intermediate High writers essentially correspond to those of the spoken language. Intermediate
High writing, even with numerous and perhaps significant errors, is generally comprehensible to
natives not used to the writing of non-natives, but there are likely to be gaps in comprehension.
Intermediate Mid
Writers at the Intermediate Mid sublevel are able to meet a number of practical writing needs. They
can write short, simple communications, compositions, and requests for information in loosely
connected texts about personal preferences, daily routines, common events, and other personal topics.
Their writing is framed in present time but may contain references to other time frames. The writing
style closely resembles oral discourse. Writers at the Intermediate Mid sublevel show evidence of
control of basic sentence structure and verb forms. This writing is best defined as a collection of
discrete sentences and/or questions loosely strung together. There is little evidence of deliberate
organization. Intermediate Mid
writers can be understood readily by natives used to the writing of non-natives. When Intermediate
Mid writers attempt Advanced-level writing tasks, the quality and/or quantity of their writing declines
and the message may be unclear.
Intermediate Low
Writers at the Intermediate Low sublevel are able to meet some limited practical writing needs. They
can create statements and formulate questions based on familiar material. Most sentences are
recombinations of learned vocabulary and structures. These are short and simple conversational-style
sentences with basic word order. They are written almost
exclusively in present time. Writing tends to consist of a few simple sentences, often with repetitive
structure. Topics are tied to highly predictable content areas and personal information. Vocabulary is
adequate to express elementary needs. There may be basic errors in grammar, word choice,
punctuation, spelling, and in the formation and use of non-alphabetic symbols. Their writing is
understood by natives used to the writing of non-natives, although additional effort may be required.
When Intermediate Low writers attempt to perform writing tasks at the Advanced level, their writing
will deteriorate significantly and their message may be left incomplete.
THE INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE JOURNAL
78
Appendix H: Qualitative Analysis- ACTFL Advanced Writing Guidelines
ADVANCED
Writers at the Advanced level are characterized by the ability to write routine informal and some
formal correspondence, as well as narratives, descriptions, and summaries of a factual nature. They
can narrate and describe in the major time frames of past, present, and future, using paraphrasing and
elaboration to provide clarity. Advanced-level writers produce connected discourse of paragraph
length and structure. At this level, writers show good control of the most frequently used structures
and generic vocabulary, allowing them to be understood by those unaccustomed to the writing of nonnatives.
Advanced High
Writers at the Advanced High sublevel are able to write about a variety of topics with significant
precision and detail. They can handle informal and formal correspondence according to appropriate
conventions. They can write summaries and reports of a factual
nature. They can also write extensively about topics relating to particular interests and special areas of
competence, although their writing tends to emphasize the concrete aspects of such topics. Advanced
High writers can narrate and describe in the major time frames, with solid control of aspect. In
addition, they are able to demonstrate the ability to handle writing tasks associated with the Superior
level, such as developing arguments and constructing hypotheses, but are not able to do this all of the
time; they cannot produce Superior-level writing consistently across a variety of topics treated
abstractly or generally. They have good control of a range of grammatical structures and a fairly wide
general vocabulary. When writing at the Advanced level, they often show remarkable ease of
expression, but under the demands of Superior-level writing tasks, patterns of error appear. The
linguistic limitations of Advanced High writing may occasionally distract the native reader from the
message.
Advanced Mid
Writers at the Advanced Mid sublevel are able to meet a range of work and/or academic writing
needs. They demonstrate the ability to narrate and describe with detail in all major time frames with
good control of aspect. They are able to write straightforward summaries on topics of general interest.
Their writing exhibits a variety of cohesive devices in texts up to
several paragraphs in length. There is good control of the most frequently used target-language
syntactic structures and a range of general vocabulary. Most often, thoughts are expressed clearly and
supported by some elaboration. This writing incorporates organizational features both of the target
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Advanced Mid sublevel is understood readily by natives not used to the writing of nonnatives. When
called on to perform functions or to treat issues at the Superior level, Advanced Mid writers will
manifest a decline in the quality and/or quantity of their writing.
Advanced Low
Writers at the Advanced Low sublevel are able to meet basic work and/or academic writing needs.
They demonstrate the ability to narrate and describe in major time frames with some control of aspect.
They are able to compose simple summaries on familiar topics. Advanced Low writers are able to
combine and link sentences into texts of paragraph length and structure. Their writing, while adequate
to satisfy the criteria of the Advanced level, may not be substantive. Writers at the Advanced Low
sublevel demonstrate the ability to incorporate a limited number of cohesive devices, and may resort
to some redundancy and awkward repetition. They rely on patterns of oral discourse and the writing
style of their first language. These writers demonstrate minimal control of common structures and
vocabulary associated with the Advanced level. Their writing is understood by natives not accustomed
to the writing of non-natives, although some additional effort may be required in the reading of the
text. When attempting to perform functions at the Superior level, their writing will deteriorate
significantly.